Mohammad Siraj is an important part of the pace attack of Team India. His performance has a great impact on the team. But he was not in form for some time and was very upset at not getting wickets. Siraj tried many different things to get in form but he did not get any success. Because of this, he was also dropped for a match in the New Zealand series. He was given a chance again in the Mumbai Test but he could not take any wicket. He was very saddened by this and was desperate to take wickets for India again. After this Siraj made a phone call, which changed his fate.
Siraj made a comeback with the help of this veteran
Siraj’s old mentor and former bowling coach of Team India Bharat Arun made a big revelation in an interview with Indian Express regarding his return. He told that after the crushing defeat in the New Zealand Test series and his own poor performance, Siraj called him. During this time there was a lot of sadness in his voice. He put forward all his problems one by one.
Siraj told Arun that his ball was sliding in the leg and he was not getting swing like before. Also, the seam position was not coming out like before. Arun has been working with Siraj since first class. Therefore, after listening to him and watching his bowling, I immediately guessed where he was making mistakes.
Former Indian bowling coach revealed that Siraj was trying to bowl the ball with more speed in order to take wickets. This was affecting his release and his wrist position behind the ball was not coming properly, which is Siraj’s biggest weapon. Apart from this, he was also running fast on the crease. He is an open chest bowler and due to this kind of effort his body was sliding more. Due to all these mistakes he lost swing and seam movement.
Due to this advice became fatal in Perth
Bharat Arun has known the bowling style of Mohammad Siraj for a long time. Therefore, before going on the Australia tour, he made a very simple plan and advised to bowl the ball targeting the off stump. With this, the ball can be brought in from outside or kept straight and accuracy also increases. After this drill, he advised Siraj to practice yorker on the same stump.
According to Arun, he had given this advice to correct the wrist position. According to him, a good yorker cannot be bowled without proper wrist position behind the ball. Siraj benefited a lot from this and he proved to be quite lethal in Perth and gave only 71 runs in a total of 27 overs. Also hunted 5 Australian batsmen. Earlier in the home test, Siraj had taken only 12 wickets in 14 innings.
Bumrah and Morkel also helped
Apart from Bharat Arun, Siraj also talked to Team India’s legendary bowler Jasprit Bumrah and bowling coach Morne Morkel. Both of them advised him to bowl on the correct line-length continuously and not to think about taking wickets. Siraj thanked these three greats after the success in Perth.