With the sixteenth ball of his spell in the Asia Cup final, Mohammed Siraj equalled the world record for the joint-fastest five-for in ODI cricket. If ever there was a delivery that deserved to equal a world record of that proportion, it was this.
The ball was bowled well beyond the crease and angled to Dasun Shanaka from across the wicket. The ball bounced off him and he was forced to play the ball from an incoming angle, but the ball actually sailed past the outside edge tantalizingly, almost whispering “gotcha” as it passed, It crashed into his stumps. Shanaka was on the right path. Sri Lanka was in ruins. This was Siraj at his best and he rarely strayed from it in his ODI career.
After his brilliant six fors in the Asia Cup final, Siraj’s ODI figures were 53 wickets and 19.1 runs in 28 innings. The only fast bowler to have taken more wickets with a better bowling average than him is former West Indies legend Joel Garner. This is a decent company.
Siraj concedes less than 5 runs per over and takes a wicket every 24 balls. In the history of ODI cricket, no bowler with more than 50 wickets has struck so fast.
He actually started playing ODIs only in 2022. He made his debut in the format in 2019, but it was pretty forgettable, playing just one game and going 0-76. He made his breakthrough last year when West Indies played his three-match ODI series and has never looked back since.
As of early 2022, Siraj is not only the top wicket-taker in ODIs among bowlers from Test-playing countries, but also far ahead of any other player, achieved by the next person on the list, Alzarri Joseph. Excellent. That is 9 wickets less.
Siraj’s emergence as an ODI bowler is based on his outstanding new ball skills. After a brief period a few years ago when he seemed to have lost his natural outswinger, Siraj has not only regained it, he has mastered it, combining it with a wobbly seam delivery to get the ball back into the right corner. I was able to do that. bring. A hander with devastating effects.
32 of Siraj’s 53 ODI wickets came in the first 10 overs at an average of 16.2. Even the best new-ball bowlers in ODIs since 2010, such as Trent Boult (21.97), Mitchell Starc (24.32), Matt Henry (20.11), Brett Lee (21.62) and Shaheen Afridi (24.88), His powerplay bowling average is at least 4 runs more than Siraj.
The top order is where most scoring takes place in white ball cricket. Among Test-playing countries, the top three batsmen (openers and number three) have contributed to 46.5 per cent of all runs scored in ODIs since 2022. Siraj’s new ball skills allowed him to defeat the strongest sections of the opponent’s batting lineup. 29 of his 53 wickets (54.71 per cent) came from the top three batsmen. To put it into perspective, the next player on this list among Test-playing countries is Fazalhaq Farooqi with 19 first-class wickets in this period, which is 10 fewer for him than Siraj.
Although the initial powerplay was clearly his strength, Siraj was not lacking in other phases of the innings either. In the middle he took 15 wickets with an economy of 4.83 in the overs, while in the death he took 6 wickets and per over he scored 6.41 runs.
Jasprit Bumrah’s prolonged absence from international cricket, especially the ODI format, over the past year and a half meant Siraj was getting consistent chances. He handled them so well that he was the fastest Indian bowler to reach 100 ODI wickets, replacing Mohammed Shami as one of the best strike bowlers in the format ( He has his second-best bowling strike rate among seamers with over 150 wickets). His first ODI XI.
Shiraj has a reputation for being hot or cold in Tests and T20s depending on the rhythm. Somehow this spectrum has fluctuated between hot and red hot for his ODIs. In the Asia Cup final, he showed that he can break through on his own on the biggest stage, something not many Indian players have been able to do in recent times.
India are looking to Bumrah to lead their attack at the World Cup, but given the form and quality shown by Siraj, his appearance in another final two months later will attract attention. No wonder.
Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.
