IND vs ZIM 2022: "KL Rahul gives a lot of freedom to the bowlers" - Mohammed Siraj on the team atmosphere during the series

Mohammed Siraj has mentioned that Indian skipper KL Rahul has given the bowlers the utmost freedom to execute their plans during the ongoing ODI series against Zimbabwe.

Siraj picked up one wicket while conceding just 16 runs in the eight overs he bowled in the second ODI in Harare on Saturday, August 20. The Men in Blue bowled out the hosts for just 161 runs and chased down the target with five wickets and more than 24 overs to spare.

During a post-match interview on Sony Sports, Mohammed Siraj was congratulated on the Indian team's win and asked about the atmosphere within the side. He replied:

"First of all, thank you so much, we have won the series. The atmosphere is extremely good. KL bhai (Rahul) gives a lot of freedom to the bowlers, so the atmosphere is very good."

Siraj was further asked by Mohammad Kaif if he is enjoying his bowling at the moment, considering his seam position is upright and he is getting outswing, to which he responded:

"I am enjoying my bowling a lot, because I had the outswing from earlier but I was not too confident about it. Now I have worked more on the seam and I have got the confidence as well, and you must have been seeing that it is releasing nicely from my hand. I was bowling with that rhythm only."

The lanky pacer added that he stuck to his game plan in Saturday's game and did not try anything out-of-the-box, elaborating:

"I need to work even more on that. The way the ball was moving from the pitch, I was thinking that I can try something else. But when I was at the top of my run-up, I was thinking that I need to keep a simple plan and not try anything else. I would have felt good even if I had not got a wicket because of the way I was bowling."

Siraj gave Team India their first breakthrough in the second ODI by dismissing Takudzwanashe Kaitano. The Zimbabwe opener edged an outswinger and was brilliantly caught by Sanju Samson behind the wickets.

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"I am just focussing on keeping the seam upright" - Mohammed Siraj

Mohammed Siraj dismissed Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root for ducks in the only ODI he played in England

RP Singh asked Siraj if he is working on adding any new weapons to his armory as a bowler. He replied:

"I am just focussing on keeping the seam upright because earlier I was working more on the wobble seam. After that, I felt that if I work on the seam, if I have both of them, the batters will have difficulties. So I am now working on the seam."

Siraj was known for his outswingers when he came into the national side. He seemed to be concentrating more on bringing the ball into the right-handers with a wobble seam in the last year or so but is now back to bowling with an upright seam.