Siraj on the Rhythm That Defines Him: ‘My Body Doesn’t Handle Long Breaks’

Mohammed Siraj has spent much of his career doing the heavy lifting for India’s fast-bowling attack, often in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah. He bowled 1113 deliveries across five Tests in England last year, a workload of 185.3 overs that no other seamer came close to matching. Only Chris Woakes, with 181 overs, was in the same territory, and he finished the series with 12 fewer wickets than Siraj’s 23.

In an era of workload management, Siraj is an outlier. He does not thrive on rest. He thrives on overs.

That reality was laid bare during India’s recent Test tour of Sri Lanka. Following the lone Test against Afghanistan that concluded on June 8, Siraj had a two-month break before running in against SLC XI in a warm-up fixture in Colombo on August 7. By his own admission, the layoff threw him off course.

“Every bowler’s body is different, but mine doesn’t handle long breaks well,” Siraj said after the Duleep Trophy final in Chennai. “A short breather is fine, but in my 10-year career, I had never taken two full months off. I was working out in the gym and bowling occasionally, but no amount of practice can replicate match intensity. It was a new experience, but a valuable learning curve for me going forward.”

The numbers from the Sri Lanka series support his assessment. Across the two Tests, Siraj’s pace dipped into the late 120s and early 130s. For context, the yorker he delivered to Gus Atkinson on the final day of England’s fifth Test, a series in which every match went to the fifth day, was clocked at 143kph.

Shubman Gill used Siraj sparingly in the first Test in Galle, handing him just nine overs in each innings. He bowled a little more in Colombo but finished the series with 44 overs, 14.3 fewer than Prasidh Krishna, India’s second pacer on the tour.

“I’m purely a rhythm bowler. If I’m not in sync, I simply can’t explode through the crease,” Siraj explained. “That was the struggle in Sri Lanka. My run-up felt disjointed. Some strides were too short, others were too long, and that broke my flow and cost me pace. Out here, everything clicked into place, and the pace followed naturally.”

Rather than accept the drift, Siraj returned from Sri Lanka and headed to Chennai to turn out for South Zone under Tilak Varma in the Duleep Trophy final. The goal was simple: bowl overs, find rhythm.

“Coming off a two-month break straight into a match, my rhythm wasn’t quite there. Heading into this game, finding that flow was my primary goal. Playing this match helped tremendously. After two months off, your body doesn’t react the same way, everything feels a beat slower. Getting through this game got my body moving again and brought my rhythm right back.”

In the unforgiving Chennai heat, Siraj ran in for 41 overs across East Zone’s two innings. He bowled spells of 10 and 11 overs, exactly the kind of extended workload he believes his body requires to function at its best.

“That’s just how my body works. The more overs I bowl, the better I get,” he said. “If I don’t bowl extended spells, my rhythm won’t return. The break left my body feeling sluggish at the crease, so I told both myself and Tilak that I wanted to bowl as long as possible. I bowled spells of 10 and 11 overs, and that’s exactly what locked me back into rhythm.”

Siraj even began the domestic fixture with wicketkeeper N Jagadeesan standing up to the stumps, but he was quick to clarify that his run-up remained unchanged.

“No, the run-up is the exact same. My approach relies on fluid, uninterrupted acceleration rather than staccato steps. Coming back after a two-month layoff, my body was just recalibrating its stride lengths. In this match, it all felt completely natural again.”

For a bowler who has shouldered a heavy workload in recent years, the lesson is clear. Siraj knows his own mechanics better than anyone.

“At the end of the day, only I truly understand my own rhythm. No matter who I work with, it ultimately comes down to me running smoothly. Once I do that, the rhythm takes care of itself.”

                                               

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