Mohammed Siraj is what they cutely refer to as a ‘roll bowler’. As in, when he gets on a roll, he is impossible to stop. Stop taking wickets, that is.
Thrice last year, in One-Day Internationals, Sri Lanka felt the full fury of the ‘roll bowler’. In Thiruvananthapuram in January, his opening spell of 7-0-20-4 sent the Islanders plummeting to 73 all out and defeat by 317 runs, their heaviest in the 50-over format. In September in Colombo, in the final of the Asia Cup at a packed and shell-shocked Premadasa Stadium, his figures at one stage read 5.2-1-7-6 (he finished with six for 21) as the hosts were cleaned up for 50. And at the Wankhede Stadium in November, in the World Cup, he produced a first burst of 4-2-5-3, Sri Lanka shot out for 55 in response to India’s 357 for eight.
At Newlands on Wednesday, the ‘roll bowler’ was at it again, translating his white-ball heroics to the traditional, more celebrated five-day version. Passable but no more in the first Test against South Africa in Centurion the previous week when senior pro Jasprit Bumrah was largely left to fight a solitary battle, Siraj roused himself into action on a blistering day with an unforgiving sun beating down harshly.
The Newlands-familiar assert that they haven’t seen a better spell of fast bowling, just as they insist that they haven’t seen a day one strip at the venue with more pace. Dean Elgar, in his farewell Test, would hardly have imagined that he would bat twice – and be dismissed twice – in one day when he opted to bat under clear blue skies. But he certainly hadn’t contended with the ‘roll bowler’, the Hyderabadi destroyer who showed skill, smarts, heart and stamina in an extended nine-over burst that sent the Proteas catapulting to 55 all out, their lowest Test score since their international readmission in 1991.
That India find themselves in a decent position to square the series after one day of the second Test owes itself almost entirely to the magic of Siraj. Nine relentless overs of hostility fetched him six for 15; those are the cold, hot stats. If they trigger visions of a man breathing fire, of someone who looked like getting a wicket every ball, then that’s not without justification.
Siraj didn’t do anything flash. Maybe that’s a lesson he learnt from Centurion, when there was considerable assistance for the quicks and he only finished with two for 91 from 24 overs. Maybe he realised that all he had to do was maintain his disciplines, land in the corridor outside off-stump and rely on the lateral movement and the variable bounce to do the job for him. One of the hardest things on a helpful surface is to not get carried away; it’s as challenging to be effective for a good seamer on a spicy deck as it is for a spinner on a raging turner. Siraj managed that with aplomb, bowling slightly fuller than normal so that he didn’t beat the bat on length but not full enough that he could be driven through the covers and down the ground. It was the perfect ‘in between’ length, the bounce catching the splice of the bat more than once when the ball leapt up off a length and the chances gobbled up expertly by the slip cordon that had an excellent day out.
To bowl nine overs in the searing heat was more than commendable; it was heroic. Of course, when wickets come as often as they did for Siraj, Rohit Sharma couldn’t have prised the ball away from his right hand with an industrial spanner. Only once previously had an Indian bowler taken five wickets before lunch on the opening day of a Test, and that was left-arm spinner Maninder Singh, against Pakistan in Bengaluru in Sunil Gavaskar’s last Test in 1987, which is a poor reflection of a day-one Test surface. Newlands didn’t lay out the ideal Test deck, but Siraj – and a litany of quicks from both sides – wasn’t complaining, even if the authorities might wonder what view Chris Broad, the match referee, will take after 23 wickets tumbled, the second most in the first day of a game in the 146 years of Test history.
This spell will convince the endearing Siraj, more than his colleagues and his coaching group, that he doesn’t have to operate all the time in the giant shadows of Bumrah and the injured Mohammed Shami. Siraj is a match-winner in his own right. The trick is now to evolve from a ‘roll bowler’ to a purveyor of a more evenly spread bouquet of wickets.