Siraj — a lion-hearted warrior forged in fire

“Shot,” the unmistakable voice to one’s immediate right thundered. We were in the press box at the Adelaide Oval last December, on day two of India’s pink-ball Test against Australia, who were flying high on another masterclass from the irrepressible Travis Head. The second new ball was just eight deliveries young when the left-hander picked a fullish ball on his pads and deposited it over square-leg for six.

Mohammed Siraj of India takes the wicket of Travis Head of Australia.
| Photo Credit:
GETTY IMAGES

Greg Chappell, the former Australian captain, the former India coach and one of the shrewdest analysts ever, couldn’t but appreciate the quality of the stroke, even if the ball was crying out for punishment. The chastened bowler whirled around, came charging back in and, in striving for a yorker, ended up bowling a full toss that, somehow, snuck through Head’s defences and rattled timber. “Whoa,” Chappell piped up, as Mohammed Siraj, one of the two principal protagonists, sent the local lad on his way with a mouthful of volleys to which Head responded in kind.

Chappell didn’t quite say it, but he would have loved a Siraj under his command – either as captain or as coach. The Hyderabadi is all heart and no little skill, not unlike Virat Kohli, of whom Chappell is an unabashed admirer. His verbals didn’t endear him to the Australians, who installed him as national villain for the next fortnight until Kohli snatched that unenviable label away with his shoulder-charge in Melbourne of debutant Sam Konstas.

Catalyst

The Head sendoff was, inadvertently, a catalyst for a trying phase in the 31-year-old Siraj’s career. He had taken five wickets in the previous Test in Perth where, against all odds, India pulled off a massive victory to open up a 1-0 lead, backing it up with four sticks in the first innings in Adelaide. He would go on to take 11 more wickets in the next three matches to finish the series with 20 scalps, second best among Indians behind the peerless Jasprit Bumrah. Siraj bowled his heart out, sending down unflagging long spells without getting his due. Such was Bumrah’s incandescence that he shaded everyone else – his colleagues, for sure, but also his opponents, who boasted a fabulous attack that comprised Mitchell Starc, skipper Pat Cummins, the admirable Scott Boland and off-spinner Nathan Lyon.

Siraj knew he had the respect of his mates; for him, that was enough. It was enough that they recognised the effort he put in in Australia’s second innings in the final Test in Sydney when India were without Bumrah. By then, the right-arm paceman had bowled 145.1 overs in the series but he knew his team needed one big effort from him with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on the line. Leading 2-1, Australia’s target on a dodgy surface was 162 – not as modest as it appeared, though their task was made plenty easy in Bumrah’s absence. India’s obsession with batting depth meant they had only two frontline quicks once the skipper for the Test was rendered hors de combat – Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, who was playing his first Test match in 12 months.

Mohammed Siraj.
| Photo Credit:
KVS GIRI

Uncomplainingly, tirelessly, with single-minded focus and grim determination though he knew in his heart of hearts that he was fighting a losing battle, Siraj stormed in, using the scrambled seam and the upright one as his ally. He had made a poor start to India’s defence of their middling target, bowling a ball so down leg to Konstas that the sprawling Rishabh Pant had no chance of stopping it. One could sense his desperation to make an early impact, an early inroad. It was a classic example of trying too hard, a much-abused cliché but perfectly justified in this instance.

What other choice did he have? He was the leader of the pack, playing his 36th Test. He had to carry with him a partner in only his third game. It was on their shoulders that India’s slender hopes lay. So Siraj and Prasidh ran in, looking for wickets. Runs came freely as they inevitably would when the quest is for wickets. Prasidh threatened briefly with the wickets of Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith in the space of seven deliveries, this after Siraj had picked up his 100th Test stick by accounting for Konstas. But with each passing ball, this pair was bushed. Prasidh at least was match-fresh, even if he had bowled a lot in the nets. Siraj, spent and running almost on empty, plugged away manfully in a marathon 11-over burst.

Australia cantered home, by six wickets, to round off a 3-1 triumph while within the Indian dressing room, amid the gloom of surrendering the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time since 2017, there was praise for Siraj (and Prasidh). In defeat, he had been gallant, putting team above self like he had towards the end of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. On tour with the jumbo-sized squad on their multi-format showdown against Australia marked by quarantines and isolation and social distancing, Siraj lost his father. If he returned to Hyderabad to be with his family, he wouldn’t be able to fly back out to Australia. Heeding then head coach Ravi Shastri’s exhortations and his mother’s words, Siraj opted to stay on with the team, even though he was forced to spend long, depressing evenings all by himself because squad members were prevented from visiting each other. It was a huge examination of the young man’s character; he came through with flying colours, making his debut in Melbourne in the second Test, then picking up a maiden five-for in the historic win at the Gabba.

But Siraj’s reward for heart and bottle this time around was the axe. He was left out of the 50-over squad for the three ODIs at home against England, and therefore subsequently for the Champions Trophy, ostensibly because of his diminishing efficiency as the ball got older. It was another terrible, terribly unexpected setback for a man who has reasonable familiarity with terrible, terribly unexpected setbacks. Siraj could allow the grass to grow under his feet, or…

By this time, Siraj was bracing for life with a new IPL franchise. After a promising first season with Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2017 when he took 10 wickets in six outings, Siraj moved to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (then Bangalore) in 2017, where he spent seven long, successful seasons. He stacked up 83 wickets in 87 matches but ahead of the mega auction last November, RCB let him go, like they had let Yuzvendra Chahal, their ace leggie, move on a couple of years previously. Siraj found a new home — at Gujarat Titans, champions on debut in 2022 and runners-up the following year. He would have the opportunity to work under the restless, energetic, wise and older-brotherly Ashish Nehra, he would have the chance to further his development as a white-ball bowler, as a T20 bowler.

Oh, and he would have the added motivation of an early crack at his former franchise, the one that had unceremoniously dumped him. Surely, revenge was on the cards?

It surely was. In front of a raucous crowd at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium that, until last season, was firmly behind him, Siraj decided to show the fans and his opponents exactly what they had passed up. He was hostile, he was accurate, probing, relentless. Devdutt Padikkal and Phil Salt packed off in a magnificent first spell of 3-0-15-2, top-scorer Liam Livingstone accounted for in his next. Final figures of three for 19, the Player of the Match honours as RCB slumped to their first defeat of the season.

It was a terrific riposte from the man whose stint with the Titans had begun with a forgettable spell of none for 54 in a 11-run loss to Punjab Kings at their Ahmedabad home. The process of atonement had taken shape at the same venue four days later when he cleaned up Rohit Sharma (with a beauty) and Ryan Rickelton in his opening spell to set up a comfortable 36-run victory. Player of the Match against RCB was an extension of the redemption song, though this must have been particularly sweet because of where, and against whom, that success had come.

But he was only just warming up. Within four nights of having wrecked RCB, he was back in the city of his birth, gearing up for battle against his original franchise. Siraj is a poster boy in Hyderabad, a shining example of how far bloody-minded determination, allied with excellent skills, can take one.

Against inarguably the most dreaded batting line-up of the IPL — never mind the recent meltdowns — he plotted a magnificent coup. Old nemesis Travis Head was dismissed in the first over, the dangerous Abhishek Sharma in the fifth. For the third game in a row, Siraj had picked up two wickets in his first spell. For the second outing in succession, he was the Player of the Match — four for 17 was largely responsible for SRH, last year’s finalists, limping to 152 for eight. From the dizzying heights of 286 for six just two weeks previously, against Rajasthan Royals.

After five matches this season, Siraj has 10 wickets — before RCB’s clash against Delhi Capitals on Thursday, only Noor Ahmad (11) had more wickets — but what’s remarkable is his economy.

Despite bowling at least two, sometimes three, overs in the PowerPlay and then coming back at the death, Siraj is going at only 7.70 runs per over, well below his IPL economy of 8.60 and an overall T20 economy of 8.19 in 146 matches. Slowly, he is making a case for himself all over again. Despite cutting his teeth in international cricket in the 20-over format in November 2017, he has played only 16 T20Is. He played his part in the US leg of the victorious T20 World Cup campaign in 2024. Who’s to say that he won’t again, at home again next year, too?