Mohammed Siraj
Credit: PTI Photo
Ahmedabad: A major weapon in the armoury of Mohammed Siraj is the scrambled seam delivery. Once a seam bowler with a largely incoming trajectory who added the outgoing one to remove predictability, the Hyderabadi has now become a potent force with his excellent addition and execution of the scrambled-seam balls.
It was on great display during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the turn of the year in Australia, where he picked up 20 wickets in five Tests. It was on show during the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series in England a few months ago, bagging 23 wickets in five Tests. He could have had a lot more in those 10 Tests combined, where he created immense pressure with his relentless accuracy, but luck wasn’t always on his side.
Siraj, well-rested following the gruelling England series where he sent down a whopping 185.3 overs in a span of six weeks, unleashed his scrambled-seam magic on the West Indies on the opening day of the first Test here at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday. Having grown in confidence over the last year as the co-leader of the pace attack along with Jasprit Bumrah, Siraj ended up being the star performer of the day with his 4/40 effort.
One of his wickets was with scrambled seam, Brandon King shouldering arms to a ball pitching on his off-stump, only to see his middle-stump go cartwheeling. Siraj loved the wicket, savouring it with his trademark Cristiano Ronaldo’s Siuu celebration.
Siraj, speaking to the media at the end of the day’s play, revealed that the scrambled-seam ball was a discovery by accident in 2018, and he’s just perfected it over the years through practice. “In 2018, my natural delivery was in-swing. But when I couldn’t swing it in, I started working on my out-swing. That’s when I realised I could try the wobble seam. I’m just hearing the name now!
“In a bid to improve my out-swing, I tried to tilt the seam and bowl. Slowly, I started gaining confidence. Now, after years of practice, it is giving me a lot of success at the international level, more than the out-swing. So, I felt I needed to work a lot on the wobble seam to stay successful.
“So whenever my out-swing doesn’t work, I fall on the wobble seam. Take today also, there wasn’t much swing on offer. So I just banked on the conventional seam as well as the wobble seam. I just stuck to my guns and it got me success.”
Siraj also admitted that successes in Australia and England have enhanced his confidence levels. “The series in England has given me a lot of confidence. It was an extremely competitive series against a strong England side. That confidence was on display today too.”