Mohammed Siraj New Zaheer Khan Of India For World Cup 2023 – A billion-and-half fans will be putting their expectations on Team India come October 5, when the World Cup 2023 will kick-start in Ahmedabad. The fans are hoping that Rohit Sharma and his side will lift the trophy on November 19, at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, and end the decade-long ICC title drought.
The last time India host the ODI World Cup was the last time they won the trophy, with MS Dhoni sealing the 2011 World Cup title with his majestic sixer.
One of the underrated heroes of India’s win in 2011 was Zaheer Khan. While fans often talk and applaud the likes of Dhoni, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Sehwag, and Yuvraj, the contributions from Zaheer Khan often goes untalked.
The left-arm pacer, who once Dhoni hailed as India’s Tendulkar of bowling, picked up 21 wickets in the World Cup 2011 tournament, joint-most with Shahid Afridi. Zaheer didn’t go wicketless in not a single match in the tournament, and provided India with strikes whenever the team needed him to.
India will be needing similar contributions from one of their paceman this year in the World Cup 2023. With Jasprit Bumrah returning from injury after a long time, it is unlikely that he will play all 9 group-stage matches in the World Cup.
Mohammed Siraj can be India’s Zaheer Khan in World Cup 2023
Mohammed Siraj had faced many tough nights as a white-ball bowler, especially in the IPL when a few years ago, in the 2018 and 2019 seasons, he used to get spanked all around the ground, bowling at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium also didn’t help him.
However, after his rise in Test cricket in 2020 and 2021, Mohammed Siraj made his impact in white-ball cricket as well, and is now one of the key links in the Indian bowling attack in the ODI team.
Siraj is all but certain to be picked in the World Cup 2023 squad and will be expected to form a formidable pace trio with Shami and Bumrah. India are likely to rotate this trio with Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur, who could also be picked, to offer their pace services as well.
Here’s why Mohammed Siraj can have a big impact in World Cup 2023:
As mentioned, Siraj has been terrific in the ODI format since last year and has forced himself into India’s ODI plans after first being seen as a Test specialist.
How did he do that?
He did it on the sheer weight of his sensational new-ball and middle-overs bowling performances.
After the 2019 World Cup, India had struggled for a couple of years to pick regular wickets with the new ball in the powerplay. But Siraj seemed to have solved that problem.
Of the 10 teams that are going to feature in the World Cup 2023, Siraj has taken the most number of wickets since 2022: since last year, Siraj has snapped 43 wickets in 23 ODIs at a terrific average of 18, striking every 24.6 deliveries.
Now coming to the most trait of Siraj’s bowling: his phenomenal show with the new ball.
Of his 43 wickets since 2022, 26 wickets have come in the first 10 overs of powerplay itself. This effectively comes to at least 1 wickets in the first powerplay.
He’s been one of the best powerplay bowlers in ODI cricket in the last couple of years, and India would be hoping that he could continue his significant impact in the first powerplay in the World Cup 2023 as well.
