India pacer Mohammed Siraj on Sunday (December 1) said that he has rediscovered the joy of bowling and how he was trying too hard to pick wickets in the recent past.

Siraj’s comment came after he delivered a single spell of 7-1-18-1 against the Prime Minister’s XI at the Manuka Oval in Canberra.

The right-arm quick attributed his return to form to Bharat Arun, saying that the former bowling coach advised him to forget about wickets and enjoy the process.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Arun recalled the conversation at the end of the home Test series against New Zealand. Siraj was left out of the playing XI from the second Test against New Zealand last month.

“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,” Arun said.

“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,” he added.

Bharat Arun also explained what was wrong with Siraj’s method. “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,” he remarked.

“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,” he further stated.

Bharat, who has mentored Siraj during his formative days in first-class cricket, knows what will work for the Hyderabad pacer.

“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 shared.

“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.”

Arun revealed that the delighted Siraj called him to say that the yorker plan had worked. “When the wrist is behind, the pace also increases automatically. The accuracy is a lot better, and you can actually then bowl what you want to bowl: be it the one that cuts back in or straightens,” he said.

“I talked to Bharat Arun sir. He said this is what is happening with me. He had known me for a long time,” Siraj told reporters at the end of India versus PM XI match.

“I have been bowling very well for the last six-seven months but I wasn’t getting wickets. As a human being, you start wondering why you’re not getting wickets. So just trying a little too hard to get the wickets led me to miss my lines and lengths a little. So I sat at home and thought about why this is happening to me.”

It was at this moment Siraj thought that he should call his old coach Arun. The plan worked out in Perth, and Arun watched the game intently.

“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,” Arun said.

“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,” he concluded.

(With The Indian Express Inputs)