India pacer Mohammed Siraj relishes the responsibility as it gives him a different kind of joy and boosts his confidence which reflects on his performances on the field.
Jasprit Bumrah is the leader of India’s pace attack across formats. In the last few years, he has taken the responsibility well. However in his absence, in Test cricket specifically, it’s Siraj who has emerged out of Bumrah’s shadow to deliver match winning spells for India, most recently in the five-match Test series against England where he finished as the highest wicket taker.
“When I get an opportunity to shoulder responsibility, even if you look at a mundane series, my performance always grows,” Siraj said in an exclusive conversation with RevSportz. “Responsibility gives me a different kind of joy, and boosts my confidence. I told you at Edgbaston that people are talking about me, and it’s time to make all that talk stop. I usually am very aware of what I’m doing, and do not pay heed to what people are saying because people do not know my struggle. Despite that, I thought it’s time to stop such talk because it was getting too much.
In the presence of Bumrah, Siraj averages over 35 with the ball with a strike rate in excess of 55 while without him, his average drops down to 25 and strike rate to around 45. Clearly, the stats say that Siraj relishes the responsibility of leading the pace attack.
“With Jassi Bhai (Jasprit Bumrah) not being there due to his back injury and his workload being managed, I tried my bit to keep the positivity in the bowling unit. Whenever I was talking to my teammates, Akash Deep and all, I was trying to spread the belief that we can do it. We can repeat what we have done already,” he underlined.
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