With the sixteenth ball of his spell in the Asia Cup final, Mohammed Siraj equalled the world record for the joint-fastest five-for in ODI cricket. If ever there was a delivery that deserved to equal a world record of that proportion, it was this.

Bowled from wide of the crease and angled in to Dasun Shanaka from over the wicket, the ball pitched on off and forced him to commit to playing it with the incoming angle, before, sure enough, it tantalisingly swerved past his outside edge, as if whispering “gotcha” as it went through, and crashed into his off stump. Shanaka was squared up. Sri Lanka were in shambles. This was Siraj at his best – a state that he has seldom been far off from in his ODI career.

After his epic six-for in the Asia Cup final, Siraj’s ODI numbers stand at 53 wickets from 28 innings at 19.1 runs apiece. Only one other fast bowler has taken more wickets at a better bowling average than him – the former West Indies legend Joel Garner. That is decent company.

Siraj concedes fewer than five runs per over and takes a wicket every 24 balls. No other bowler in the history of ODI cricket with more than 50 wickets has struck at a quicker rate.

He only really started playing ODIs in 2022. His debut in the format came in 2019, but it was just one game and with figures of 0-76, it was rather forgettable. Last year, he got his break when the West Indies came calling in a three-match ODI series, and has never looked back.

Since the start of 2022, not only has Siraj been the highest wicket-taker in ODIs among bowlers from Test-playing nations, but he has been so far above the rest that the next person on the list – Alzarri Joseph – has nine wickets fewer.

Siraj’s rise as an ODI bowler has been built on the back of his exceptional new-ball skills. After a brief period where he seemed to have lost his natural out-swinger a couple of years back, Siraj has not only regained it but has mastered and coupled it with the wobble seam delivery that he uses to bring the ball back into the right-hander, to devastating effect.

32 out of Siraj’s 53 ODI wickets have come inside the first 10 overs at an average of 16.2. Even the best new-ball bowlers in ODIs since 2010, the likes of Trent Boult (21.97), Mitchell Starc (24.32), Matt Henry (20.11), Brett Lee (21.62), and Shaheen Afridi (24.88), have powerplay bowling averages at least four runs more than that of Siraj’s.

The top order is where the bulk of the scoring happens in white-ball cricket. Among Test-playing nations, the top three batters (openers and No.3) have contributed 46.5 per cent of all runs scored in ODIs since 2022. Siraj’s new-ball prowess has meant that he has taken down the strongest portion of opposition batting lineups. 29 of his 53 wickets (54.71 per cent) have been of top three batters. To put it into perspective, the next person on this list among Test-playing countries is Fazalhaq Farooqi with 19 top-order wickets in this period, 10 fewer than that of Siraj.

While the first powerplay has clearly been his strong suit, Siraj hasn’t been found wanting in other phases of the innings either. The middle overs have fetched him 15 wickets at an economy of 4.83, while in the death overs, he has gone for 6.41 runs per over, having taken six wickets.

Jasprit Bumrah’s extended absence from international cricket in the last year and a half, particularly from the ODI format, meant Siraj received consistent opportunities. He grabbed them so well that he has now replaced Mohammed Shami, the fastest Indian bowler to 100 ODI wickets and one of the best strike bowlers in the format (he has the second-best bowling strike rate among seamers with 150-plus wickets) in India’s first-choice ODI XI.

Siraj has had a reputation for blowing hot and cold in Tests and T20s depending on his rhythm. Somehow, that spectrum has ranged between hot and red-hot in ODIs. In the Asia Cup final, he showed that he can single-handedly break games open even on the biggest of stages, something that not a lot of India players have done lately.

India will be banking on Bumrah to be the leader of their attack at the World Cup, but given the form and quality that Siraj has displayed, it won’t be a surprise if he comes along and steals the show in another final two months down the line.

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