Mohammed Siraj – India’s very own Terminator away from home

A few years ago, the Indian cricket team desperately looked around for a pace bowling enforcer away from home who could topple world orders at will and set the wicket-taking gun on free-firing mode. Mohammed Shami certainly proved to be one of those mean seeds when he stepped into the international arcade.

Following his trail arrived Jasprit Bumrah, the Indian pace express. Though it took a while and a string of mishaps to leave India with very limited options, that too in the heart of Australia, Siraj did follow suit from the very rubble of desperation. Ever since, he has proven to be the game-changer, playing a major hand in converting India’s pace battery into one of the most fearsome bowling attacks of all time.

What makes Mohammed Siraj so special away from home? Well, the answer is that he thrives mainly under hostile conditions and he loves to draw all the inspiration he can from the gauntlets thrown at his feet. The more glacial the situation is, the more rampaging is the fire in him. From being victimized of racism in the iconic Gabba and Lord’s to turning the tide with a smile on his face and a silencer on the platter for the opposition, Siraj has done it all.

If we take a deeper dive into his numbers away from home, particularly in the SENA nations (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia), he has proven to be almost unplayable. Even though he is still to travel to New Zealand in whites, he has been India’s aggressor-in-chief with the new red ball in hand.

Siraj has racked up 61 wickets away from home in Test matches, out of which 48 have come in Australia, South Africa and England combined from 13 Test matches. He has claimed 13 wickets in Australia, 23 in England and 12 in South Africa to claim the majority of his dominion.

With a fifer in both Australia and South Africa, Siraj has already penned an ode to his unplayable brilliance while in England, he registered two four-fers in the same match-up to make the Three Lions go whimpering in their own den. Apart from these powerhouses in the longer format of the sport, Siraj has seven wickets in West Indies and six in Bangladesh from four matches combined.

What really makes Siraj so special? Well the answer is pretty nuanced. First and foremost, his fearlessness sets him apart. Watching the West Indies from the 70s to the 90s, where they produced the towering fast bowlers who would deemed nothing short of monsters in terms of their heights and whiplash releases, India too fancied a few names who would terrorize the opposition with a decent brand of pace infused with the menacing banana swing.

Siraj’s fearlessness even against the best makes him do what he does best, apart from a natural tendency to experiment. Experiment at the biggest stage of all, experiment with all the weapons in his armour, get the ball to do its own trick from multiple angles, release points and at times with a bit of assistance from the surface too. Secondly, his never-give-up attitude certainly sets him apart from others. No matter how much of a whacking he takes, he keeps on coming back at the batters and in any sport you play, if you are cut from this fabric of cloth, no one can stop you.

Talking about the technical aspect of his bowling, he gets the ball to move around and is a frequent knocker on the corridor of uncertainty which gets the batters to get into an awkward drive and with the uncertainty about the direction of the movement, they often find themselves nicking at the ones drifting away or leaving the ones angling in. And to add to all of these, Siraj guns well enough at a bare minimum pace of 140-plus clicks to make it a lot more vicious for the batters at the receiving end.

Too much to process? The batters feel exactly the same. Let’s be honest. Miyan is just warming up. The best is yet to come and we can’t wait to see what’s in store!