On Sunday, the Indian fast bowler, Mohammed Siraj said on Sunday, January 15 reveals that he was determined to improve his limited-overs cricket after having had a forgettable Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season with Royal Challengers Bangalore. Siraj talked about his improvement in limited-overs cricket, especially ODIs after delivering a series-winning performance against Sri Lanka in a 3-match ODI series.
Mohammed Siraj scalped 9 wickets in the 3-match series as he bowled a spell of 4 for 32 in the 3rd ODI as the visitors got bundled out for 73 runs while chasing 391 runs in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.
During the post-match media interaction, Mohammed Siraj said, “When my IPL went bad, I thought I wanted to get better in white-ball cricket as well. I slowly started working on white-ball skills. When I did well in 1-2 ODIs, I got the confidence that I would be able to do well in LOIs.”
The Hyderabad pacer said he has stopped focusing on the end result and is satisfied if he gets his lines and lengths right on a consistent basis. Siraj, who has relied on scrambled-seam deliveries, said he is focused on striking with the new ball and giving India the edge in the powerplay.
Explaining the same, Mohammed Siraj said, “I don’t want to focus a lot on end results. Earlier, I used to think a lot about my performance. Nowadays, I have started to realise that regardless of my performance, I want to be consistent with lines and lengths with each delivery I bowl. Then my performance slowly started to improve. Even when I don’t pick wickets, I wanted to be satisfied with bowling good lines and lengths.”
He further added, “This series has gone really well. My plan was to get wickets with the new ball and put pressure on the opposition. I didn’t mind giving a boundary or two, wickets with the new ball can put the opposition on the back foot.”
India had put up a massive score of 390 in their 50 overs on the backs of hundreds from Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli, who remained unbeaten on 166 to continue his fine start to life in 2023. It was then the Siraj show in Thiruvananthapuram as he ran through the visitors’ batting line-up and picked up all his four wickets in the first 10 overs of the innings.
Speaking after the match, as quoted by Cricbuzz, the 28-year-old said that he tried very hard to get the five-wicket haul. Siraj said that he was getting good outswing but the wicket-taking over was when he bowled with a scrambled seam. The India pacer said that he was trying to generate some doubt in the minds of the batters with his outswingers. Siraj admitted that Sharma tried hard to get him his five-wicket haul but they were unsuccessful in the end.
Mohamed Siraj said, “I wanted to try and get my first fifer. Tried very hard, but you get only as much as you deserve. The outswing was coming out nicely, but the wicket-taking over was the scrambled seam. I just try to generate some doubt in the batter’s mind with those outswing deliveries. Captain tried hard to get me that fifer, but what can we do.”
Siraj will next be in action in the 3-match ODI series against New Zealand, which gets underway from Wednesday, January 18.
