Ahmedabad, Oct 2 – Mohammed Siraj said his ‘wobble seam’ deliveries helped him find his groove on Day 1 of the first Test between India and West Indies at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday as he picked up four wickets to bundle out the opposition batters for a paltry 162 in 44.1 overs. The last Test Siraj played was against England at The Oval, just under two months ago. He was a bit off form at the start of the day, but quickly found his mojo back after taking his first scalp.
The wicket came in the 10th over, when he dismissed Brandon King with his signature wobble seam delivery. Siraj explained that he chose this delivery when his away swingers didn’t yield results. “When my in-swing stopped. I automatically started getting an out-swing. Then, I realised that this is what is called ‘wobble seam’. I kept putting it into practice. I have just heard of the term wobble seam. So, I will tilt the seam a little and bowl,” Siraj told reporters at the post-match conference.
“When the out-swing is not working, then my wobble seam will work more. And to this day, it has given me the same success. So, I am enjoying that thing. And as it was today’s wicket, the swing was not happening that much. So, I thought that the seam was happening here. So, the wobble seam will be more effective. So, I stuck more on it, the wobble seam,” he added.
The Hyderabad pacer further mentioned that getting those four wickets wasn’t a cake walk, and that he had to work hard to add those scalps under his belt. He also stated that the same was the case when he took on England’s batters during the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy. “I get wickets by working hard. I got wickets by working hard in England as well. Here also, I worked hard. It is not like someone gave me wickets for free. I had to work hard to get those four wickets,” he noted.
Asked about his mindset before going in to bowl against the Windies, Siraj said that he was very excited to bowl upon seeing a ‘green-top’ wicket, calling it a rarity in home games. He expressed happiness over managing to execute his plans well, as he said: “I was very excited to bowl on this green-top wicket, something we don’t get very often in India. The last time we had such a wicket was against New Zealand in Bengaluru. I was able to execute it as planned. Two balls before, he was hit on the pads, and I thought about bowling in the line of the stumps. It worked exactly as I wanted.”
