On top down under: Siraj doesn’t take baggage of home season to Australia | Sports

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Mohammad Siraj came to Australia with six wickets in his last four Test matches. His speed seemed slow. Last home season, there was perhaps a stretch of the game where it seemed he wasn’t just part of the machinery, where he was responsible for moving the game forward.

It happened earlier in the season, where in the second innings at Chennai, when the pitch had lost a bit of juice for the fast bowlers, he roused himself to bowl a series of bouncers off Najamul Hussain Shantu. And got in the batsman’s face to make sure he knew he had no way out.

This is sometimes the case with Siraj in India. It has moments, then disappears. At the start of 2024, at their home ground in Hyderabad, he did not come to bowl until the 20th over of the second innings and things were not going well for India there. They had the lead but England were eating it up fast. That was the last throw of the dice. It wasn’t entirely his fault. There was nothing for him in this pitch. Even Jasprit Bumrah had to wait until the ball was reversing to unleash his usual havoc.

Siraj does not have the skid that Akash Deep and Mohammad Shami have. He doesn’t have the wind speed that Umesh Yadav has. These skills can take conditions out of the equation, which is often what a fast bowler needs to do to enjoy success in Asia. Siraj was dropped against New Zealand in Pune, and the feeling that he did not pose much of a threat on spin-friendly surfaces was only reinforced when he returned to the XI for the next Test in Mumbai and in the first Bowled just six overs. Innings and none in the second.

In the Tests that Siraj has played in India, the fast bowlers average 29.52 runs per wicket. He averaged 37 in those games. Fast bowlers in the subcontinent are often tasked with taking advantage of small windows. The new ball offers a A scratch ball offers another. Abroad, it’s different.

Siraj started the fourth day in Perth with a wicket. He didn’t have to wait. He didn’t have to suffer. All he had to do was pretend. Obviously, India had already worked the position, but the start of a game away from home is always a period you want to win and Siraj helped his team by getting rid of Usman Khawaja.

Siraj was even better in those 20 minutes at the end of the third day, disrupting Australia’s plans by getting rid of Nightwatcher and immediately trapping Marnus Lebuschagne. He came back after a long follow-through from Chennai. The bounce in his step was back.

On the first day, there was a lot of humidity around, the start of the game was cooler and wetter than usual, and Siraj caused problems. If he had his way, Labushgin would have faced scrutiny for possibly obstructing the field in the first innings when he dropped a short ball and then tapped it with his bat just as Siraj hit it on the stumps. Was trying to kick.

You don’t need to put an extraordinary amount of backspin on the ball to be effective in Perth – like Akash and Bumrah do. Pitch – being great and tight – helps you do that. Siraj benefited from this. He dismissed Steven Smith on the fourth day with a ball that behaved one way on the way down – swerving towards the right-hander – and on the other way – away from the seam. Because he barely lost any velocity after pitching, even a great problem solver like Smith found it difficult to adjust.

It is pretty much a given that Bumrah will put pressure on Australia during this Border-Gavaskar Trophy. But it may not always pay off if there is no pressure from the other end. Coming into the series, it was not certain that Siraj would be able to deliver. But there was no doubt that he would try.

On Siraj’s last tour to Australia, while he was still waiting to make his Test debut, his father died. This was when the CoVID-19 rules were in place and if he left for home, he would first have to go through quarantine before rejoining the squad. This would have hurt his chances of playing for India. His mother reminded him of that dream and told him to stay back and play. Play for your father. Fulfill his dream. He did just that, and returned to India as one of the stars of his famous Brisbane win. He went straight from the airport to visit his father’s grave and perform his last rites.

Siraj has also felt the pain of dropping his form or the frustration of bowling in irresponsible conditions. He will continue to work on ways to narrow the gap between his home average and his overseas average (currently more than 10 points apart) but for now all he has to do is show he can put in the best effort. can also Blow this red ball of times off the Australian pitch. – cricinfo