Siraj finds solace in old ally as Bumrah and Morkel offer reassurance

This led to Siraj being dropped from the second Test against New Zealand. As the Kiwis completed a 3-0 demolition of India, Siraj knew he had to make some changes before the five-Test tour of Australia. In order to get back on the right track, he reached out to an old friend who had played a significant role in his early days in international cricket.

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transform: rotate(32deg); animation: shinerMooving 3s infinite; z-index: 1; filter: blur(1px); } @keyframes shinerMooving { 0% { left: -40px; } 100% { left: 150%; } } Top 15 buys at IPL 2025 Auction Rishabh Pant ₹ 27 Cr DC LSG Total Match 111 Total Runs 3284 Highest Score 128 runs Shreyas Iyer ₹ 26.75 Cr KKR PBKS Total Match 115 Total Runs 3127 Highest Score 96 runs Venkatesh Iyer ₹ 23.75 Cr KKR KKR Total Match 50 Total Runs 1326 Highest Score 104 runs Wickets 3 Best Bowling 2/29 Arshdeep Singh ₹ 18 Cr PBKS PBKS Total Match 65 Total Runs 29 Highest Score 10 runs Wickets 76 Best Bowling 5/32 Yuzvendra Chahal ₹ 18 Cr RR PBKS Total Match 260 Total Runs 37 Highest Score 8 runs Wickets 205 Best Bowling 5/40 Jos Buttler ₹ 15.75 Cr RR GT Total Match 107 Total Runs 3582 Highest Score 124 runs KL Rahul ₹ 14 Cr LSG DC Total Match 132 Total Runs 4683 Highest Score 132 runs Trent Boult ₹ 12.50 Cr RR MI Total Match 104 Total Runs 83 Highest Score 17 runs Wickets 121 Best Bowling 4/18 Jofra Archer ₹ 12.50 Cr MI RR Total Match 35 Total Runs 195 Highest Score 27 runs Wickets 46 Best Bowling 3/15 Josh Hazlewood ₹ 12.50 Cr RCB RCB Total Match 12 Total Runs - Highest Score - Wickets 12 Best Bowling 3/24 Mohammed Siraj ₹ 12.25 Cr RCB GT Total Match 93 Total Runs 109 Highest Score 14 runs Wickets 93 Best Bowling 4/21 Mitchell Starc ₹ 11.75 Cr KKR DC Total Match 41 Total Runs 105 Highest Score 29 runs Wickets 51 Best Bowling 4/15 Phil Salt ₹ 11.50 Cr DC RCB Total Match 21 Total Runs 653 Highest Score 89 runs Ishan Kishan ₹ 11.25 Cr MI SRH Total Match 105 Total Runs 2644 Highest Score 99 runs Wickets - Best Bowling - Jitesh Sharma ₹ 11 Cr PBKS RCB Total Match 40 Total Runs 730 Highest Score 49 runs Check Full Coverage

"He sounded a touch sad, down, then. He told me that the ball was sliding towards leg, he wasn't getting the swing and the seam position didn’t feel as ideal as before. 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 was putting more effort at release," Bharat Arun, the former India bowling coach, told The Indian Express.

"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. 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."

Why Mohammed Siraj was struggling, Bharat Arun explains in detail

Siraj is at his best when he is bowling a strong and intimidating stump-to-stump line to the batters, which is why most of his wickets, when in full flow, have been either bowled or LBWs, or caught behind after squaring up the batter. With his wrists not in proper position, Siraj lacked the same accuracy that made him a threat when he burst onto the Test set-up. Hence, Arun, who had worked closely with the bowler in India's domestic scene, knew what he had to do. Get Siraj to get his lines right and only focus on the bottom of the stumps.

"It's no use saying get the wrist behind the ball; when you are edgy and worried, all that doesn’t make sense. I know Siraj, he works best when you give him a simple bowling plan, a drill, say. That's the off stump, so to speak, and if he wants he can bring the ball from just outside or straight. Setting a simple target like that forces accuracy," he said.

"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."

Mohammed Siraj rediscovers his mojo

Arun's impact on Siraj was visible straightaway as the India pacer went back to his wicket-taking ways, finishing with a match-figures of 5/51. In the first innings, Siraj dismissed Marnus Labuschagne out LBW and had Mitchell Marsh nick the ball to KL Rahul at second slip. In the second innings, Siraj outshone his stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah, picking up three out of the first five wickets to fall – Usman Khawaja, Pat Cummins and Steve Smith – all out caught behind dismissals but due to the batters' struggle to play down a straight line.

"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," added Arun.

"That helps the ball in straightening and when it did, Smith edged it. For Siraj, the main thing is the wrist behind the ball. That’s the sign; for him if that happens, it means other things are in place: he is not falling away, he is not pushing the ball down, and he is hitting the right lengths."

Siraj's return to form comes at the right time for India, who are already 1-0 up and keen to make it 2-0 in the pink-ball day-night Test in Adelaide starting Friday.

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