Delhi: Many factors were responsible for Team India's clean sweep defeat by New Zealand on their own pitches and one of them is Mohammed Siraj's failure as a strike bowler. Even though this was a series of spinners, how would it look right for Siraj to take only 2 wickets in 2 Tests at an average of 58 and a strike rate of 93? In New Zealand's second innings at Wankhede, Rohit Sharma did not ask him to bowl a single over. Even for the Pune Test, Akashdeep was included in the playing eleven in place of Mohammad Siraj. Siraj returned only when Bumrah did not play at Wankhede.
Well, Team India's policy is to rotate fast bowlers on its pitches and it had done the same in the England series earlier this year but here, the matter was different. In 2024, Siraj's record in 9 Tests is 19 wickets at an average of 30.31 and that is not a very impressive record. If we remove the Cape Town Test from this, then Siraj's domestic record is only 12 wickets in 15 innings and who will this impress? The only good thing is that the household average in 2024 was better than last year.
Obviously Siraj's record is not like the expectations with which he entered cricket. No wickets have been taken in 10 out of the last 15 innings on their pitches. They cannot even complain that they did not get full opportunities. Despite spinners taking more responsibility with the ball and rotation, Siraj got a chance to play. From his Test cricket debut till the one-off Test against England in July 2022, Siraj took 40 wickets in 13 Tests at an average of 30.77. In comparison, the next 40 wickets taken in 18 Tests were at an average of 30.50.
From September 26, 2022, until the Test against New Zealand at Wankhede, and no frontline Indian fast bowler has played as much cricket as Siraj. If we add up all the formats, we have 63 matches (18 Tests + 34 ODIs + 11 T20Is) and the next name in the list is Arshdeep Singh (53 matches till the end of Wankhede Test). Arshdeep has not made his test debut yet. Even Bumrah has played only 37 matches in all formats while Mohammed Shami has played 29 matches and Mukesh Kumar has played 26 matches. Apart from Bumrah (10) and Siraj (18), no other Indian fast bowler has played 10 Tests in the last two years (Umesh Yadav and Akashdeep are the closest with 5).
It is clear that the selectors and the team management saw Siraj as a 'permanent' even in this period of change in bowling, but in return Siraj did not play the role which was expected from him. Even in the IPL to some extent, his recent record has been poor and he does not seem to be 'the' bowler in 2024 who was seen as India's great hope for the future. Well, let us hope that he will be seen as he was in 2021 because if India wants to win the Border Gavaskar Trophy, Siraj will have to take wickets.
Sanjay Manjrekar feels that Mohammed Siraj needs to be reminded of his poor form. In fact, in the New Zealand series, due to injured Mohammed Shami not playing, Siraj, the second most senior fast bowler in the team, took only 2 wickets in the first Test in Bengaluru and India lost with no wickets at Wankhede. There is a need for Siraj, with his track record, to come out of the shadow of his recent form and bowl more.
