In the second Test at Adelaide, Mohammed Siraj got his first wicket after 21 frustrating overs. Though, he would finish the inning with figures of 4/98 in 24.4 overs.
During his barren period of play, Siraj had pace, rhythm and plan, but no wickets. He would square up the batsmen, beat them with pace and fox them with bounce but the ball, as if to tease the bowler, kept missing the edges and the stumps. Siraj would look exasperated, he would wipe the sweat on his face with his untucked shirt. There has always been something charmingly amateurish about Siraj.
Such annoyingly hair-pulling days are part of every bowlers’ journey but only those with the right stuff pull through. These are the moments this quirky game of fine margins decides to ask an important question to a bowler: You have the skills, but do you have heart? In a match he didn’t get a five-for nor proved to be a match-winner, Siraj showed he did have heart.
Pacers love attention and the rising cheer from the terraces. It makes them run fast and bowl faster. Life hasn’t indulged Siraj. He doesn’t depend on love to be the bowler he is. It helped at Adelaide.
India’s Mohammed Siraj, left, interacts with Australia’s Travis Head during the day three of the second cricket test match between Australia and India at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)
The wicket of local star Travis Head and his subsequent angry send-off turned the local crowd against him. They booed him relentlessly. Not just when he bowled but even when he walked in to bat later.
This trend is expected to continue for the rest of the series. Chances are Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney too would take a cue and target Siraj. But will the jeering and heckling make Siraj nervous and impact his play? Not with Siraj. Actually, it fired him to bowl an inspired spell – the adrenaline rush of Head dismissal helped him run over the tailenders.
Australian fans need to look beyond Virat Kohli, be slightly more inquisitive about the other Indian cricketers. Had they known Siraj better, they wouldn’t have dared to intimidate him.
Back in 2020-21 BGT, he made his debut at Melbourne. In the next match at Sydney, the rookie was brutally booed. They called him names. It was ugly. The Indians said it was racist too.
And then within days, Gabba happened. Series of injuries made him the pace spearhead. That turned out to be his real international launch. Unlike in Adelaide this time, things fell in place for him. Edges flew to fielders; stumps couldn’t hoodwink the balls. Unlike in 2024, he got a fiver and India won.
India’s Mohammed Siraj signs autographs for fans after the second cricket test match between Australia and India at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, Australia. (AP)
The Aussies would have been wiser had they heard Siraj on an old Royal Challengers Bengaluru podcast. It’s where he gets emotional while talking about his early days of struggle and the sacrifices of those around him. It’s on Spotify.
He chokes; he laughs. Siraj comes across as a real person not a PR agent-tutored pro cricketer. It’s easy to conclude, he is no lily-livered, mollycoddled cricketer. He is a charming rustic Hyderabadi, till he is poked. He is also an outlier and very obstinate. He is from Hyderabad, and thus wristy. But he isn’t a batsman.
Siraj’s late father was an auto driver and his biggest supporter. Mother, a domestic help, was the more pragmatic parent. She wasn’t sure if her son could be that sharp shining needle in the piles of shattered cricketing dreams that are littered like haystacks around the country.
She would try and coax her son to keep a distance from cricket. “Kuch kaam karle, chhod ye khelna (Do some work, leave playing the game),” she would say. But the cricket-smitten teen would sneak out in his chappals to the Eidgah ground located near his home at Toli Chowki locality.
On the way out, he would leave behind a grand promise for the mother to ponder. “Purra ghar bhar dunga paise se, cricket khelke (Will fill the home with money by playing cricket),” he would say. “Ja ja chod tere vaade …, (Go, go don’t give me such promises)” – mother would scoff at her daydreaming son.
Travis Head said he was displeased with Mohammed Siraj’s send-off during the Adelaide Test on Saturday. (AP)
This was followed by years of rewardless hard work – just like those 21 wicketless overs at Adelaide. He would borrow money to sustain his cricket. Give up the game for a bit, get a regular job but soon quit it and head to the Eidgah ground. The relentlessness would give him a break, he would play for Hyderabad, be an IPL net bowler, make it to the India team but get dropped soon.
Siraj was bowling well but the edges were being missed. But he would keep wiping the sweat with his untucked shirt and keep returning to the top of the run-up.
The world around Siraj wasn’t known for its sensitivity. He would get sledged by fans at the stadium and on social media. Siraj has heard a lot of abuses but he does remember this one. It was when someone from the stands shouted at him: “Go back and drive an auto like your father”. That hurt.
Fate would give him a big break when he would get picked for IPL for Rs 2.6 crore. After that auction, he would tell his parents that their working years were over. They now need to enjoy the fruits of their son’s cricketing toil. Since he had to join the team within a week, he told his elder brother to buy a new house.
Mohammed Siraj reclaimed his rhythm after dismissing Marnus Labuschagne in the first innings of the Perth Test. (AP)
The demand was met and when Siraj returned home, he saw a sight that gave him the ultimate ‘sukoon’ – spiritual satisfaction. “My mother and father were at home, sitting on the dining table and having meals. This was my biggest achievement in life,” he would say. Siraj’s aazmaish, loosely translated as test, was not over.
While in quarantine during the Covid time IPL, Siraj was told that his father wasn’t keeping well. Once in a while when he would talk to him, it would always be about the advice of “making the country proud.” After that he would break down.
The father’s pet wouldn’t understand why he was repeating this message. The bad news would arrive during the Australia tour. The virus had not yet been tamed, the cricketers were still indoors. For 12 days, Siraj was all alone in his room dealing with the news of his father’s death. “Only Allah knows how much I suffered. I couldn’t meet anyone, there was security outside my door,” Siraj says in the RCB podcast.
While at his lowest in life, barely with two Tests behind him, he bowled the spell of a lifetime. For someone who has dealt with all this, what are 21 wicketless overs? But then the high on spirits dusk time Australian fans booing the boy from Toli Chowki, wouldn’t have known this.
Send feedback to sandydwivedi@gmail.com
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