Former India bowler RP Singh believes Mohammed Siraj can fill in for the injured Jasprit Bumrah in the national squad. Singh praised the Hyderabad bowler and suggested that if Siraj continues to develop, he might become the next Mohammed Shami.
Siraj has undoubtedly been India’s top fast bowler across all forms in recent months. In Bumrah’s absence, he has improved his game and had some outstanding performances.
The right-arm pacer is presently playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2023) for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). He appears to be in fine form, having taken 15 wickets in 9 games with an average of 17.20 and an economy rate of 7.37.
Singh made a significant statement about Siraj in an interview with the Hindustan Times. He stated:
“Of course, he can be a replacement for Bumrah. In fact, I feel, if his graph continues to increase he can be the next Mohammed Shami.”
Singh explained the pacer’s remarkable improvement in recent months by saying that the bowler has worked on his fitness as well as some technical changes to his bowling. The former left-arm pacer remarked:
“I have been following Siraj for a long time now. When he joined the Indian team, his graph was really high and then slowly it started falling. But it is good to see that he has worked on a lot of things this time, fitness being a major point.
“Now, if you look at the technical bit, he has worked a lot on his wrist position and follow through for which he is getting the ball top bounce better and is also bowling stump-to-stump.”
Siraj has played 18 Tests, 24 ODIs, and 8 T20Is for India, having 43, 47, and 11 wickets respectively.
Siraj – “The lockdown was very important for me”
Siraj stated that the lockdown was very crucial for him since he had time to concentrate on his skills and conditioning after being crowned Player of the Match for his figure of 4/21 in an IPL 2023 game against Punjab Kings (PBKS) last month.
He had stated:
“The lockdown was very important for me. I was quite down before that because I used to be expensive earlier. I focused on my gym training, on my bowling and I wanted to do well.”
