India vs England: Siraj's form augurs well for a spearhead's role

Hindustan Times

4 hours ago

Mumbai: In his debut series in 2020-21, Mohammed Siraj finished with 13 wickets to play a starring role in India's unlikely series win in Australia. A few months later, he returned from England with 18 scalps in five Tests. He had to wait until 2024-25 for his next double-digit series haul (20 in five Tests in Australia).
For a promising pacer who started Test cricket in the fast lane in Australia, leading the attack in just his third Test with a five-wicket haul to earn his team a memorable victory, Siraj's career has yet to hit top gear.
The 31-year-old will be an important cog in India's bowling attack in the five-Test series in England, especially since lead bowler Jasprit Bumrah might be rotated and rested to manage workload.
The Hyderabad pace bowler was in excellent rhythm in the Indian Premier League and it has raised expectations of a fine showing. The feature of his impressive showing in IPL for Gujarat Titans was the way he was extracting sharp movement with the new ball. In England, the conditions will be perfect for swing bowlers.
'Everyone I know has a lot of expectations from Bumrah but you need someone else to shoulder that responsibility as well. That has to be Siraj. He is the senior (most) after Bumrah, he has played a lot of cricket. Not only him, you need others to shoulder the responsibility as well,' says former India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey.
'You expect your frontline bowlers to be in the best of rhythm. From what I have seen is that Siraj and Bumrah, the way they have gone about in terms of IPL, is very heartening.
'He (Siraj) has excellent prospects. It's heartening simply for the fact that you need experience. The couple of guys who have toured England and have the experience are Bumrah and him.'
Towards the end of last year, after starting the Australia tour well, Siraj had looked a bit jaded as the series progressed. He was overlooked by the selectors for the Champions Trophy. Left to cool his heels at home as India won the prestigious 50-overs ICC event, Siraj didn't sit idle. He took the break from international cricket to work on his game and came back into IPL looking sharp.
'Good to see he has peaked at the right time. I am sure he has worked on his game and a lot of other aspects of the game that reflect on the ground,' Mhambrey says.
Mhambrey has seen first hand the quality of Siraj's bowling in IPL. It started with the match against Mumbai Indians at Ahmedabad when he cleaned up Rohit Sharma with a beauty, the ball darting in and hitting middle-stump. During that game, Mhambrey was in the MI dugout as their bowling coach.
So, what is he doing right technically?
'It is all about rhythm, right? It is something which you need to feel as a bowler. You might come across differently (different bowlers will deliver the ball in different ways), but individually it is all about the feel. What the feel does, it translates into the release, you are happy with the way the ball leaves your hand, and you are pretty much sure what the ball is going to do, so all that falls into place. It is the length. When you have the rhythm, you know you can hit that particular length, the kind of block you are really looking at,' says Mhambrey, relating Siraj's current form to how he bowled in the 2023 Asia Cup final in Colombo when he blew away hosts Sri Lanka for 50 runs with 6/21 in seven overs.
'He has been consistent with his pace, his length has been consistent. He is using the crease, that kind of stuff. When you have the rhythm, you tick all the boxes. Similar to what we saw in the Asia Cup final, the spell he bowled against Sri Lanka. You knew the rhythm was there, the length he was pitching, moving the ball in and out, that is what you saw in this IPL.'
With 100 wickets in 36 Tests, Siraj has enough experience under his belt. His best match haul of 8/126 was during India's win at Lord's in 2021.
This time in England, Siraj's real test will come in matches where Bumrah decides to rest to manage workload. Immediately, all eyes will turn to Siraj as the next senior bowler. How he copes with that responsibility is going to determine his success on this tour.
In patches, Siraj has bowled impressive spells. On this important tour, an Indian team under transition is expecting a big impact from him. The kind deserving of the tag of a lead bowler.