Mohammed Siraj: India's pace sensation

HE appeared in his very first India series in the long format as a tragic hero. Last November, Mohammed Siraj was in Australia, expecting to bag the Test cap for his country. The quarantine rule was at play at the height of the coronavirus pandemic and amid the restrictions, the fast bowler got a devastating news. His father Mohammed Ghaus passed away after a prolonged medical condition.

As a newcomer, it was not easy for a man who overcame great obstacles to scale the heights. The Indian team made arrangements for Siraj, who was 26 then, to return home in Hyderabad in the Indian state of Telangana for his father’s funeral. But leaving Australia and rejoining the national team would mean Siraj would have to serve another fortnight of quarantine and that could see him losing an opportunity to make the Test debut.

Siraj’s mother, a housewife, asked him to stay back and he followed the advice, prioritising his late father’s dream to make him play for India .

“He was the person who supported me the most. It’s a great loss for me,” Siraj had said then, adding, “He wished that I continue playing for India and make my country proud. I just want to fulfil my father’s dream.”

Siraj has not forgotten his humble roots even after emerging as one of the most sensational members of India’s famous pace battery. He still remembers how his father, who was an auto-rickshaw driver, backed him as a cricketer and that he asked him not to take out his three-wheeler any more to earn a livelihood after he secured a contract in the Indian Premier League. He also shifted his family to a new house, playing the perfect son who carried out his responsibilities towards his family well.

Siraj decimates England at Lord's

The pacer displays the exuberance of youth at times, as it was seen during the second Test match against England at Lord’s in which he produced his career-best figures of 8 for 126 to stun the hosts and give his side a 1-0 lead. One would feel that Siraj missed the man of the match award narrowly but the bowler is not too concerned about those awards. At the moment, he wants to make the story of his incredible rise in cricket as memorable as he can.

Mohammed Siraj (centre) celebrates after castling Jimmy Anderson to give India victory in the second Test match at Lord's Cricket Ground on August 16, 2021. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Siraj’s introduction to the game was unique as he got to bowl with a tennis ball in his early days. He started playing regularly when he was 11 and turned heads in his school games. His attraction for cricket only grew stronger and he started skipping school and risking mother’s wrath to play the game. The commitment did not go in vain as Siraj soon became a star in Hyderabad’s tennis-ball leagues.

The family of four (Siraj has an elder brother who is a software professional) lived modestly. They stayed in a cramped house which had two main rooms. But his father was determined to give his son every opportunity to shine as a cricketer.

'My father never let financial pressure affect me'

“My father has slogged,” Siraj later recalled while speaking to The Telegraph, UK. “He drove auto all these years but never let financial pressure of the family affect me or my elder brother. Bowling spikes cost a lot and he would just get the best for me,” he added.

He started bowling with a hard ball in 2015 when he joined Charminar Cricket Club. He had strength, pace and a knack of hitting the stumps. Soon, Siraj was picked for the Hyderabad U-23 team and then made his first-class debut for Hyderabad.

In 2016-17, Siraj took 43 wickets in the Ranji Trophy, India's first-class tournament, announcing his arrival as India’s one of the most promising seamers. The IPL franchises were alerted and a fierce bidding war ensued to get the quick bowler and eventually Sunrisers Hyderabad paid Rs 2.6 crore (£250,000) to get him. He later went to Royal Challengers Bangalore and currently plays for that side, under his national skipper Virat Kohli.

Kohli’s contribution to help Siraj in getting mentally strong can’t be ignored either. After the news of his father’s death reached Siraj, it was Kohli who had asked him to stay strong for his dad’s dream. It was not to forget that Kohli himself has also been through a similar experience when he was 18. In 2006, he was batting for his side Delhi against Karnataka in a crucial Ranji Trophy game when his father died. He returned the next day to save his team from facing a follow-on.

Siraj's determination to make his father’s dream a success paid off in Australia. When he went Down Under, he had played just four limited-over matches for India (three Twenty20s and one one-day internationals) with limited success. In the Tests, he was expected to be a supporting bowler who would complete the line-up.

But Siraj’s moment came. A series of injuries saw him making his debut in the red-ball format on Boxing Day in Melbourne. It was a match of immense pressure since India had faced a humiliating defeat in the previous game in Adelaide where they were bundled out for 36 in the second innings.

Australia won the toss at the MCG and elected to bat but Siraj did not bowl in the entire morning session and got the opportunity as the sixth bowler. But it was not long before he claimed his first scalp – Marnus Labuschagne, Australia’s highest scorer in that innings with 48. He picked another wicket in the form of Cameron Green and ended up with 2 for 40, India’s third-best bowler in the game till that point after Jasprit Bumrah (4 for 56) and Ravichandran Ashwin (3 for 35).

His performance in the first innings saw Siraj getting promoted in the bowling order. He bowled as the first-change in the second innings after India got into a commanding position. The attacking bowler did not disappoint his attacking captain and bagged three wickets for only 37 runs, the best bowling figures in that innings. Five wickets in his debut Test that India won were something that did a world of good to Siraj’s confidence.

The man was seen in tears when the national anthem was played ahead of the third Test in Sydney.

The son in Siraj was missing his father. “My father wanted to see his son play a Test match like this - if he was alive today, he would have been able to see me play,” he said. The third Test saw Siraj facing racial abuse from spectators – an incident that saw the game getting halted and fans getting rejected after Siraj reported his experience to the umpires on the ground.

Mohammed Siraj of makes a formal complaint to the on-field umpire about some spectators in the bay behind his fielding position during a Test match against Australia in Sydney in January 2021. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Siraj became the Indian spearhead in just his third Test

Amid all these, India continued to see more and more injuries even as they kept on dictating terms to Australia and in his third Test in Brisbane, Siraj became the spearhead of the Indian attack. For a two-match old player, this could have been something overwhelming. But Siraj has always been a confident youngster and he carried the responsibility in style, picking up his first five-wicket haul in the second innings and raising his hands aloft to greet his father.

To those who thought Bumrah is the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket in recent times, Siraj challenges that conclusion. The former has taken 91 of his 95 wickets in (20) Tests overseas and Siraj has given enough indication that he is also capable of doing something similar, by picking 24 of his 27 wickets abroad in just five matches. Nineteen of them have come in matches that India have won – in Melbourne, Brisbane and Lord’s. There's a healthy competition going on in India's pace department at the moment.

Siraj is a thinking bowler and he turns deadly when he combines that with stamina and aggression. He is never underprepared before taking up the challenge at the highest level as his smart performance at Lord’s proved. Playing with a tennis ball in his early days helped Siraj master yorkers and when he adds to it his pace, the batsman requires more than luck to survive the fury. In him, Hyderabad aspires to see its next cricketing star after Mohammed Azharuddin and VVS Laxman.

“Even though he is not in the world, he’ll always be with me,” Siraj once said after his father’s death.

The man plays with pain – the pain of missing his father cheering him from the stands. But sometimes, pain makes a man stronger. Siraj is showing that in ball after ball.