Royal Challengers Bengaluru, embracing a name change in alignment with its home city but retaining its amazing fan base, have many heroes in their Cinderella story so far in the Indian Premier League 2024 season. But from the Indian cricket team’s perspective, Mohammed Siraj’s re-discovery of rhythm has been a big gain.
He will not mind being overshadowed by left-arm seamer Yash Dayal and the team’s batters. Virat Kohli has been the standout bat while skipper Faf du Plessis and Rajat Patidar found magical spells of play often enough. Will Jacks, with a blazing unbeaten century in Ahmedabad, and Dinesh Karthik with some cameos ensured that the batting unit untangled the cobwebs it tied itself in.
Siraj’s season has divided itself in two contrasting halves. In his first six games, he picked up just four rather expensive wickets, averaging 54.75 runs each, while bowling 47 dot balls. And in the seven matches that he played in the second half of RCB’s league phase, he claimed nine scalps at 26 runs each while bowling 75 dot balls. But those are mere numbers. Let us look beyond them.
He had not lost the knack of making the ball change direction in the air but perhaps the line he was bowling was not the best. And Du Plessis’ decision to bring him on as first change in a couple of matches also seemed to work against him, though it may have been designed as a means to help Siraj find his rhythm.
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From being Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowling spearhead last season, the 30-year-old paceman had become a conundrum. Coaches and support staff did their best to help him regain his trust in being able to bowl his best and with aggression. They seemed to have tried too hard with no luck until they decided to give him a one-game break at the end of the first half of the league.
Unlike Glenn Maxwell who attributed his indefinite break in the middle of the campaign to mental and physical, the fact that he did not play the April 15 home game against Sunrisers Hyderabad helped him come back strong. The game produced a whopping 549 runs. Siraj gladly admitted that the break did him a world of good.
“It allowed me to introspect and zero in on the fact that it really boiled down to getting my rhythm back. I was not finding my rhythm and therefore not being able to execute well. I was able to pick up wickets with the new ball when I returned,” he said. He also bowled a better line on return and cut down the number of poor deliveries he was bowling.
Above all, he backed himself with positivity, constantly reminding himself that a couple of bad games would not make him a bad bowler. After saying that he always believes he is the best, he knew he had to walk the talk. The quest for rhythm led him to finding it in Hyderabad where he bowled four overs for 20 runs against Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head.
Confirmation of his selection to the Indian team and a bit of rain also added to his changing fortunes. His opening spell against Gujarat Titans when he picked up the scalps of Wriddhiman Saha and skipper Shubhman Gill can easily be picked as the game in which he completed the turnaround.
His growing confidence made him speak fearlessly against the rule that allows teams to field Impact Substitutes. “Batters approach the game with no fear in Powerplay, aware that teams can include another batter even if a couple of wickets are lost in the quest for big runs,” he told the official broadcaster in an interview during a match. And he did this without flinching.
The happy space that he finds himself in also saw him celebrate left-arm seamer Dayal’s transformation. He appeared content sharing his insights, not the least in field placing, as Dayal emerged the team’s most successful bowler, winning everyone’s hearts with that final over against defending champions Chennai Super Kings.
Indeed, Siraj is well and truly on his way back to peak form, even in Twenty20 cricket, justifying the selectors and team management’s decision to back him despite being in the dumps, in a manner of speaking. Siraj is Jasprit Bumrah’s new ball partner, and he will be expected to land some early blows when India take the field at the T20 World Cup next month.
Whether the think-tank heaved a collective sigh of relief watching Siraj regain his mojo or it patted itself for backing him when he was all at sea in the early part of RCB’s campaign will not be known. But fans of the Indian cricket team will hope that he continues to express himself with the ball and contributes significantly to the side’s journey in the Americas.
Also Read: The Sunrisers Hyderabad template – Exhilarating and intimidating