Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra has advised Mohammed Siraj not to forget his strengths, saying the bowler might have scalped a lot of wickets with inswing, but he should make the most of his outswing as he is quickly moving forward with his international career.
He believes that Siraj, who snared 14 wickets at 30.71 in the 4 Test matches against England, should rely more on his outswing deliveries as he feels the pacer will play an important role in Test cricket in future.
Siraj burst into the international scene on the back of his excellent exponent of outswing, but the pacer has mainly resorted to incoming deliveries lately. Indian captain Virat Kohli has tended to pack the leg-side field whenever Siraj comes to bowl with the 27-year-old targeting the stumps.
Nehra said on Sony Sports, “Mohammed Siraj should never forget what his strengths are. We saw a lot of scrambled seam and a lot of wickets on inswing but the outswing, which was his strength, we saw that less and the England tour has passed, where there was a chance to bowl outswing. The expectation is that he will learn from this.”
Praising Siraj, the former pacer said: “There is no doubt that Mohammed Siraj has bowled amazingly well in whatever chances he has got, especially in the Lord's Test. He will get better with experience but whether you talk about fitness, ability to bowl long spells, or pace, he has all the ingredients. Since the time he has started, if you see from Brisbane till now, he has given more than 100% in all matches.”
He signed off by saying, “The options you have in pace bowling - Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah. Now the experienced Umesh Yadav has also done well after being an opportunity after a long time. A big addition to that is Mohammed Siraj, who will play an important role in Indian cricket, especially in Tests, going forward.”
