Mumbai: Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) bowling coach Ashish Nehra has put Mohammed Siraj ahead of ace fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah in terms of skill and variations, said ‘sky is the limit’ for him.
Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who is arguably one of the best pacer across all formats. He has been one of the biggest gifts for Indian cricket in the past few years. Known for his impeccable discipline and control, he tasted success quickly after showing his potential in the Indian Premier League and that escalated very well into his international career as well.
Saying that Siraj has even more skills than his colleague Jasprit Bumrah and if he can maintain his fitness and increase his game awareness, then sky is the only limit for him.
“When you talk about skill, this has been my thinking in the last three-fours years. When it comes to bowlers, everyone talks about Jasprit Bumrah being right up there. But skill wise, I don’t think Siraj is behind Bumrah, and in all formats,” Nehra was quoted as saying on Cricbuzz.
“There was talk about a couple of years ago that he used to pick up 5-6 wickets in every match for India A with the red ball, and I’ve always believed that a good red-ball bowler, a Test match bowler has a greater chance of succeeding as a white-ball bowler.”
Siraj who is enjoying a great campaign in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League with RCB as they have won all four of their matches so far. The 27-year-old made his Test debut in Australia and remain as one of the leading wicket-taker for India in earlier this year. He took his maiden Test five-wicket haul as well in the fourth Test at the Gabba as India registered a historic victory.
“There are some bowlers whom you include only for T20s, for white-ball matches. So In think Siraj is a very good all-format bowler. There is no shortage skill, he has all type of variations. I would in fact say that skill-wise, he is even ahead of Bumrah, if you talk of variations. He has a different slower one, there is no lack of speed, he can move the new ball. He needs to keep his fitness and sharpen his mind. If he can do these two things well, sky is the limit,” Nehra added.
