After Australia and England, success in SA beckons Siraj
With 33 wickets in 10 Tests in his first year, the pacer will look to build on the strong start to his career
NEW DELHI: “He is someone who has a lot of skill and talent. It feels like he can pick you a couple of wickets in every spell. Especially in difficult situations, you can rely on a guy like him to bowl three-four rapid overs and make something happen from the pitch.”
These words from Virat Kohli could have easily been for Jasprit Bumrah or Mohammed Shami, but he was extolling the virtues of Mohammed Siraj—the newest member of the India pace attack—following the recent series victory over New Zealand. Lofty praise, but not even faintly hyperbolic: in the one year since his debut in the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Siraj boasts of 33 wickets in 10 Tests at an average of 27.69 and strike rate of 53.8. In just his third Test, Siraj found himself leading the Indian pace attack at the Gabba. He responded with a fifer to contribute to what was one of India’s greatest ever Test victories at a ground where Australia had not lost a Test in 32 years. It’s a performance that defines Siraj. As we await the start of another Boxing Day Test, against South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion, the fact that there is little doubt about him deserving to play as the third seamer ahead of a 105-Test veteran in Ishant Sharma exemplifies his burgeoning career graph since that emotional Melbourne morning a year ago.
Melbourne was emotional for Siraj for many reasons. While the reward of a Test debut after unrelenting consistency for India A and in domestic cricket was momentous enough, the passing of his father just weeks earlier made it all the more poignant. Instead of returning to Hyderabad from Australia to attend the funeral, he chose to stay back and play an integral role in India’s series victory over the Australians.
The signs of Siraj’s seamless adaptation to Test cricket were there from the moment he was handed the ball after lunch on the first day in Melbourne. Cast your mind back to his second wicket in Test cricket—the victim was Cameron Green—and it was apparent that here was a sharp bowler who knew exactly what was needed to set a batter up. He conned Green by moving him across the stumps with a series of out-swingers before delivering a jagged in-swinger to trap the Australian leg-before wicket.
The all-rounder may not have been exposed to such precise execution given that it was also his maiden series, but Siraj went on to replicate the classic set-up and outwit Joe Root during the home series in India as well. That in-swinger is his stock weapon, and a major reason why his record against left-handers is impeccable. He targets the middle-stump line against them and takes the ball away from that probing line. It leaves left-handers in a quandary, often compelling them to play at those deliveries and the threat of the outside edge keeps the catching cordon behind firmly interested. The likes of Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock in the South African camp will have to pay close attention.
It’s not just conventional swing that a batter has to guard against either. Watch him operate with a slightly older ball in particular and you will find that he often bowls with a wobbly seam to extract marginal seam movement both ways. His seam position at the point of delivery doesn’t invoke the awe that say Shami does, but it’s no less effective.
“It’s the seam movement that makes him all the more difficult. He can swing the ball both ways, but the one that swings back into the right-hander is one of his stock deliveries,” said former India bowling coach Bharat Arun, under whom Siraj made his India debut.
Another essential reason for Siraj’s smooth beginning is his shrewd understanding of the length to bowl on different surfaces. CricViz data underpins how he has subtly varied his lengths in Australia, India and England. While the percentage of good length balls in Australia and England were similar at 43 and 44% respectively, he bowled short 38% of the time in Australia while 19% of the balls were in the full zone. When the turn came to play in England, where the pitches are more conducive for sideways movement, only 30% of his balls were short deliveries with 26% of the balls in the full-length area.
“The pitches in South Africa will definitely be conducive to his type of bowling. If he bowls the right length in South Africa, he should easily be one of the premier bowlers. The ideal length in SA would be very similar to what it is in Australia. He will stick to those lengths. Ideally, I would like to see Bumrah, Shami and Siraj start together,” said Arun.
In backing Siraj to start, Arun knows the ramifications for Ishant Sharma’s long Test career. The 33-year-old from Delhi has been grafting away in earnest for 14 years now in a journey that sees him tied on 311 Test wickets with Zaheer Khan. He wouldn’t have made it this far if not for a second wind under Arun, the zenith of which was hit with the start of the previous tour of SA. From January 2018 to January 2020, he claimed 66 wickets in 17 Tests at an average of 19.43 and strike rate of 42.7. Since suffering an ankle injury in New Zealand in February 2020, however, he has taken only 19 wickets in nine Tests. Considering his experience, he might have still been an automatic choice in the playing XI in SA provided Siraj hadn’t had such a promising start to his Test career.