Siraj hasn't been good enough to live in Bumrah's shadow

We will give you all the numbers you need, but the bottomline is Mohammed Siraj hasn’t been good enough as India’s second-preferred paceman. You can’t be taking the new ball, bowling alongside arguably the best bowler of the current generation, and averaging 123.5.

Oh yes, that’s how much Siraj has been averaging against Australia’s top-five batters in the last three Tests of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. To make things worse, the right-arm seamer has a balls/dismissal of 182 and an economy rate of 4.1. Those numbers are beyond terrible.

In Mohammed Shami's absence, the onus was on Siraj to give ample support to Jasprit Bumrah and the 30-year-old started the 2024-25 BGT on a good note. India won by 295 runs in Perth, with Bumrah being Player of the Match, but Siraj, too, finished with match figures of 5/71 in 27 overs. 

He complimented Bumrah very well and dismissed the likes of Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith. Siraj looked like a pacer who was on his second tour of Australia, bringing in all his experience. But things have taken a drastic turn since then.

Eight wickets at an average of 45.3 - this is what Siraj has done across five innings in Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne. If you dig slightly deeper, four of those eight dismissals have come against batters batting at No.7 or lower. 

Siraj dismissed No.7 Alex Carey in Adelaide but Australia were already leading by more than 100. Then he got rid of Smith in Brisbane, who was batting at No.7 in the second innings, but that was largely because Australia were looking for quick runs before declaration. What these numbers tell you is how ineffective Siraj has been with the new ball. 

In these same three Tests, Bumrah has taken 11 wickets at an average of 17.2 against Australia’s top-five batters and has most definitely looked multiple levels above Siraj. 

4, 6.8, 4.2, 5.1 and 5.3 - Siraj hasn’t operated at an economy of less than four in his last five innings. Head, Smith, Alex Carey, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Khawaja and Sam Konstas - Siraj has taken a proper beating from almost every Australian batter.

The concern about him not taking wickets with the new ball, well, Siraj only has two wickets at an average of almost 120 in his first four spells in these last three Tests. Six of those aforementioned eight wickets have come in his last three spells and anyone with a decent cricketing knowledge would know that game would have already drifted away by then. 

Now, this is not a problem Siraj has developed recently. The ongoing Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is Siraj’s 35th, and his average reads 31, which is quite mediocre for a second-lead bowler. His average is not less than 30 in any of his first five spells, with the fourth and fifth ones being way above 40. Siraj’s average almost touches 35 in his first five spells. In years he has played more than two Tests, not once has he averaged less than 30.

Even his overall numbers against top-five batters - 47 wickets in 576.2 overs at an average of 43.3 and ball/dismissal of 73.6 - don’t read great. It’s only because of his numbers against the lower middle-order and tailenders (46 wickets @ 18.5) that Siraj’s Test average is anywhere close to 30. 

Then there is also the ‘inconsistency factor’ attached to the Hyderabad-born seamer. There will be innings where Siraj looks almost unplayable, but on most days, he ends up being the bowler that allows the opposition to take control of the game. This is one of the reasons why he was dropped for the second home Test against New Zealand in Pune in October.

Like in the Melbourne Test, Bumrah had an off spell with the new ball but instead of stepping up, Siraj once again failed to both control runs and pick wickets. Konstas took him down in the first few overs before Smith and Cummins took him to the cleaners in the second half of Australia's innings.

Once things don’t go his way, Siraj has a history of losing his cool and making a mockery of himself, like he did in the first innings at the MCG. It was at this very venue that Siraj made his Test debut in 2020 and played a major role in India bouncing back from a humiliating defeat in the opening Test in Adelaide.

It’s been four years since then, and the promise everyone saw in him in 2020 hasn’t quite been fulfilled.