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Arun has mentored Siraj through his first-class years and after watching the pacer bowl against New Zealand, the former India cricketer understood what was wrong.
Mohammed Siraj. (Picture Credit: AP)
Mohammed Siraj has come to Australia as a much better bowler than he was in the previous Test series, against New Zealand, at home. The right-arm quick bagged a 5-wicket match-haul in Perth and then picked up a wicket in the rain-curtailed warm-up at Canberra as well.
What transpired in a matter of a few weeks, bringing out the best of Siraj? Nothing much but fine-tuning his skills after some useful piece of advice from former India bowling coach Bharat Arun.
Arun has mentored Siraj through his first-class years and after watching the pacer bowl against New Zealand, the former India cricketer understood what was wrong.
“I had been watching him and had noticed a few changes and asked him what he had been trying. In his pursuit of wickets, he had felt that he had to increase his pace, try to get more swing/movement and put more effort at release.
“The main problem as I saw it was his wrist wasn’t behind the ball, his most crucial weapon. In his effort to increase the pace, all these mistakes were creeping up. Perhaps he felt a bit rushed at the crease. What happens then is your body can also slide/tilt a bit more, especially if you are an open-chested bowler like him. That meant his radar was now going down,” Arun was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
“Without the wrist at the right place, the seam position too was getting affected. And instead of getting more movement that he wanted, the bowling was getting affected.
“I then told him to bowl a lot of yorkers at that one stump. Now, this is not to improve his yorkers but to get the wrist in the right position behind the ball. You can’t bowl yorkers, good ones that is, without the wrist in the right position. If it’s tilted or out of shape, then the ball won’t go where you want it to go,” he added.
Siraj Thanks Arun
After India defeated Australian PM XI, Siraj spoke to the broadcasters and said he spoke to Arun after not getting wickets consistently despite bowling well.
“I spoke to Bharat Arun sir. He said this is what is happening to me. He had known me for a long time,” Siraj would say at the end of the PM XI game.
“I have been bowling very well for the last six-seven months but I wasn’t getting wickets. As a human being, you start wondering why you’re not getting wickets. So just trying a little too hard to get the wickets led me to miss my lines and lengths a little. So I sat at home and thought about why this is happening to me.
“That Smith wicket in the second innings was the ideal Siraj for me. How much did it move? Not much. It’s not what he was trying to do when he was down and in poor form; he had wanted lots of movement etc. That’s not him, as in that’s not his bowling style,” he added.
