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'To make him understand, I will shout at him': India bowling coach Bharat Arun explains how Siraj excelled in Australia
While head coach Ravi Shastri had already described him as ‘the find of the series Down Under’, bowling coach Bharat Arun stated that Siraj is someone who has both anger and hunger to succeed at the international level.
Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj had a successful outing in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar trophy which India won 2-1. After making a dream debut in the Boxing Day Test, the Hyderabad cricketer returned as the highest wicket-taker of the touring party with 13 scalps under his belt.
While head coach Ravi Shastri had already described him as ‘the find of the series Down Under’, bowling coach Bharat Arun stated that Siraj is someone who has both anger and hunger to succeed at the international level.
In a conversation with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, Arun revealed how he spotted Siraj’s bowling prowess during his association with Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“Siraj is someone who has both the hunger and anger. When I saw him in Hyderabad, in fact, I saw him when I was with RCB when he came as a net bowler. At that time, I went and told VVS Laxman during our game against SunRisers that the kid is bowling really well. I asked him he still has not played for Hyderabad, right? You can use him, right? He nodded but he did not play much that year,” Arun told Ravichandran Ashwin on the latter's YouTube channel.
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“When I went as Hyderabad coach, I called Siraj again. He was not even in the probables then. When I saw him bowling again, it was even more impressive. I thought it was a one-time thing with this pace and aggression that I saw in the nets. But when I called him again, he had the same passion, intent and he bowled exactly the way I had seen earlier. When I went to Hyderabad as a coach, they gave me full power. So I told that this kid should definitely play,” he added.
Further complimenting the right-arm pacer, Arun mentioned that the biggest strength of Siraj is his self-confidence which helped him throughout the series Down Under.
“Another striking feature with Siraj is, if we tell him something to do, he will do that exactly the way he has been asked to. Of course, he will try his own experimentations, and I will shout at him when he does that. To make him understand, I will shout at him. When I came to the Indian team, he asked me ‘Sir when will you call me?’ He got selected and played few games for India in the white-ball format. He was on and off. His biggest strength is his own confidence in himself. That's his biggest success factor."
