Focusing on consistent line and lengths, proving to be the main mantra for India’s star pacer Mohammed Siraj

India whitewashed Sri Lanka in the One Day International series as they scripted the biggest win in the history of the format in the third ODI. Rohit Sharma’s men batted first and posted 390 on a tricky wicket in the Greenfield Stadium in Kerala. The visitors simply had a forgetful day as none of their batters managed to handle the Indian pace attack and were bundled out for a meager 73 runs. The victory meant that India now has recorded the biggest win in ODI cricket history.

The Indian pacers were fantastic but the pick of them all was Mohammed Siraj who has reinvented his game in the white ball format and only gotten better with time. He bowled with a lot of rhythm and ran through the Sri Lanka batting line up picking up four wickets. The 28-year-old took a total of nine scalps in the series against Sri Lanka and is now brimming with confidence in his white ball abilities.

Siraj spoke to the media after the fantastic win and shared how he had lot confidence in his abilities after a poor IPL. But he kept improving and was determined to not focus on outcomes and rather focus on the right things that he can do as a bowler and that has helped him.

“When my IPL went bad, I thought I wanted to get better in white ball cricket as well. I slowly started working on white ball skills. When I did well in 1-2 ODIs, I got the confidence that I would be able to do well in limited-overs cricket,” Siraj opened up in his post match press conference.

He had a very poor IPl last time out as he picked nine wickets in 15 matches for the Royal Challengers Bangalore at an economy of 10.8 and hence he was a little anxious about his abilities in the limited overs format. But the franchise has shown trust in him and has retained the 28-year-old pacer for the upcoming season.

He earlier used to delve more on the results and the outcomes and that used to affect him a lot. But now he focuses more on his line and length while bowling and tries to do his best and improve his consistency.

“I don’t want to focus a lot on end results. Earlier, I used to think a lot about my performance. Nowadays, I have started to realise that regardless of my performance, I want to be consistent with lines and lengths with each delivery I bowl. Then my performance slowly started to improve,” Siraj highlighted.

He highlights how his aim in this series was to pick wickets with the new ball and even when he is not getting wickets he wants to be focused with his consistent line and length. It has helped the bowlers immensely as he now does not care about going for a few boundaries in order to get that early breakthrough.

“Even when I don’t pick wickets, I wanted to be satisfied with bowling good lines and lengths. This series has gone really well. My plan was to get wickets with the new ball and put pressure on the opposition. I didn’t mind giving a boundary or two; wickets with the new-ball can put the opposition on the back foot,” he concluded.
Siraj will be hoping to continue this form in the upcoming New Zealand series which is starting from January 17th. Siraj for the first time will be playing in front of his home crowd in Hyderabad.