Test cricket is very important for my career – Mohammed Siraj

It was a day for Mohammed Siraj to celebrate as he laid waste to South Africa with a feisty brand of bowling, registering his best bowling figures in Test cricket. On a surface that had practically nothing for the batters, Siraj stepped up with the new ball and ran roughshod through the batting line up of the Proteas, clinching the wickets of Aiden Makram, Dean Elgar, Tony de Zorzi, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne and Marco Jansen.

We have seen Siraj pulling off a similar stunt against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup finale but that was an ODI contest. Bowling in the whites with the new ball in his hand, is a different ball game altogether. Siraj perfected the art of line and length and as he claimed six wickets from nine overs, the entire world looked in awe. Talking to Paras Mhambrey in a video released by BCCI, Siraj broke down his spell and also underlined how important Test cricket has been for him.

Siraj said, “When I was bowling in the beginning, I felt like my end favored the release. Whenever I was putting in an effort, it was becoming manageable for the batters. So I decided to just release the ball. And as we saw, the results were more effective as well.”

He further added, “Once our innings ended in the last match, we’d given away too many runs. I realised, I’d tried a lot. So far in my Test cricket career, it was the first time that I’d got a maiden in the 24th over. I haven’t seen my videos, but I’d realised what I’d done wrong. It dawned on me pretty quickly. I knew what I had to do in the next game.”

Talking about the spell, Siraj said, “No, I hadn’t thought this would happen. To be honest, the bowling partnerships are so important in this format. When me and Jassi bhai were bowling, he was unlucky not to get wickets, but his bowling was creating further pressure.”

He then drew a contrast between his match-winning spell in Colombo where he seized the Asia Cup for India almost single-handedly while spearheading the revolution for India at Cape Town, stating, “The only similarity between the two spells is six wickets in both games. I’d given some 23 runs then, here I’ve given only 15.”

Siraj concluded by talking about the importance of Test cricket in his career, stating, “Test cricket is very important for my career. I want to play as many games as I can in this format. You need to be consistent throughout long spells. You get to tackle challenges, which is something I enjoy.”