Mohammed Siraj is hurting, and that is evident with the way he is bowling in IPL 2025. The Hyderabadi is hurting after he was axed from the Indian side for the Champions Trophy, that lifted the title under Rohit Sharma. And like a true man-on-a-mission, Siraj has been delivering for his side Gujarat Titans. On Sunday, against SRH, he returned with figures of 4/17, his best-ever in IPL.
Mohammed Siraj’s Fiery Outing in IPL 2025
That is not it. The 31-year-old also became the 12th Indian pacer to get to 100 wickets in the IPL. So overall now, in 97 matches he has 102 wickets, at an average of 28 and an economy rate of 8.61. His performance against his former team — where he picked up the wickets of Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Aniket Verma and Simarjeet Singh — shows how effective he has been this year in the tournament.
Siraj is joint-second in the list Purple Cap leaderboard along with Mitchell Starc, with the duo claiming nine wickets each.. only surpassed by Afghanistan’s Noor Ahmad. But more than the wickets, even bigger highlight has been the number of dots he has bowled in the tournament. Against SRH, he gave no runs on 17 deliveries, out of the 24 balls.
“Saliva Ban” Removal Plays Part in Success
But, one of the factors for this improved performance has to be, the use of saliva on the ball. After Covid-19 hit, the ICC had stopped the use of saliva for shining the ball, that had taken swing away, more so from the T20s. That, resulted in batters getting comfortable to score unrealistic runs. But Siraj, with that, proved to be handful. He swung the ball late, got movement from the pitch, both ways, to flummox the batters.
In fact, the bowler himself confirmed the assistance he has been getting due to saliva use on the ball. “I am enjoying a lot. I have worked on my bowling and fitness, feeling fresh and I am enjoying bowling. Even if the ball tails a bit (due to the use of saliva), it becomes easier to get wickets (especially bowled and lbw) dismissals.”
Apart from the first match vs PBKS, where he gave away 54 runs, Siraj has been mighty effective against MI, RCB and now SRH, returning with figures of 2/34, 3/19 and now 4/17, respectively.
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