Mumbai: Mohammed Siraj has bowled impeccably for India over the last few months and he has now carried that form into the Indian Premier League for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. No wonder, he is sitting on the top of the pile for the most wickets this season. There has been considerable upturn in the 29-year-old’s fortunes considering that he leaked runs aplenty in the 2022 IPL, conceding 10.07 runs per over in 15 matches with his credentials as T20 bowler in question. While with 13 scalps he leads the ‘Purple Cap’ race, what has been impressive about him this season has been how miserly he has been. This season he is conceding at just 7.17 runs per over and has bowled 89 dots — the most in the IPL — in seven matches which comes to almost 13 dots per match. The best dot ball rate over the last five seasons belongs to Prasidh Krishna, who bowled 11.76 balls per match in the last season. According to former Australian pacer Brett Lee the Hyderabad-lad has added everything in his repertoire that a fast bowler needs and that’s one of the major reasons for his recent run. “The reason why he is sitting on top of the purple cap list is because of his pace. He has got genuine pace, he shapes the ball away, he can also angle the ball back in. But when you bowl him in that middle to late overs, he has got a killer yorker. We saw that in the first few games where he absolutely nailed his yorkers,” said Lee, who works as an IPL expert on JioCinema. He added: “I have always said that a team that closes out the death overs the best with their bowlers, will be a team that will go on to be successful. So, RCB are very lucky to have a guy like Siraj, who is charging in every single day. I’m not surprised to be honest that he is up there (topping the wickets tally).” Lee was also critical of Sunrisers Hyderabad not giving the new ball to Umran Malik. “I don’t believe they (SRH) have used their bowlers in the right positions. I would always give the fastest bowler the new ball and give him the correct field. Give him that confidence to run and bowl. My advice will be to give him a couple of games with the new ball…and then he misses out, he misses out…There are lot of batters out their if you ask them ‘if they will face Malik in the ninth over or the first’, I can promise you that they will rather face them when the ball is old,” said Lee. The Jammu & Kashmir speedster has bowled just one over in the Powerplay this season in which he ended up conceding 28 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders. Other than that, the earliest he has bowled is in the eighth over against Rajasthan Royals in their opening match.
News Source: https://m.timesofindia.com/city/mumbai/rcb-lucky-to-have-a-bowler-like-siraj-lee/amp_articleshow/99746066.cms
