On top down under: Siraj doesn't take baggage of home season to Australia

Mohammed Siraj came to Australia with six wickets in his last four Test matches. His pace seemed down. In the preceding home season, there had been maybe one passage of play where it seemed like he wasn't just part of the machinery, where he was responsible for the game moving forward.

It happened right at the start of the season, where, in the second innings in Chennai, after the pitch had lost a little bit of the juice it had for the fast bowlers, he roused himself to bowl a series of bouncers at Najmul Hossain Shanto and got in the batter's face to make sure he knew he had no way out.

This is sometimes what happens to Siraj in India. He has his moments, then vanishes. At the start of 2024, on his home ground in Hyderabad, he didn't come on to bowl until the 20th over of the second innings and it wasn't like things were going well for India there. They had a lead but England were rapidly eating into it. He was the last throw of the dice. It was not entirely his fault. That pitch had nothing for him. Even Jasprit Bumrah had to wait until the ball was reversing to wreak his usual havoc.

Siraj doesn't have the skid that Akash Deep and Mohammed Shami have. He doesn't have the air speed that Umesh Yadav has. Those skills can take the conditions clean out of the equation, which is often what a fast bowler has to do to enjoy success in Asia. Siraj was dropped against New Zealand in Pune, and the sense that he doesn't offer as much threat on spin-friendly surfaces was merely reinforced when he came back into the XI for the next Test in Mumbai and bowled only six overs in the first innings and none in the second.

Fast bowlers have averaged 29.52 runs per wicket in the Tests that Siraj has played in in India. He averages 37 in these games. Fast bowlers' job in the subcontinent is often about taking advantage of small windows. The new ball presents one. The scuffed-up ball presents another. Abroad, it is different.

Siraj began day four in Perth with a wicket. He didn't have to wait. He didn't have to suffer. He didn't have to do anything other than show up. Obviously India had already worked themselves into that position, but the start of play away from home is always a period that you'd like to win and Siraj helped his team do that by getting rid of Usman Khawaja, who is excellent at batting time.

Siraj had been even better in those 20 minutes at the end of day three, messing up Australia's plans by getting rid of the nightwatcher and immediately getting stuck into Marnus Labuschagne. That long follow-through from Chennai was back. That bounce in his step was back.

On day one, there was enough moisture around, with the lead-up to the game being colder and wetter than usual, and Siraj caused problems. Some of them uncanny. If he had his way, Labuschagne would've faced scrutiny for possibly obstructing the field in the first innings when he gloved a short ball down and then tapped it away with his bat just as Siraj was trying to kick it onto the stumps.

You don't need to put an unusual amount of backspin on the ball - as Akash and Bumrah do - to be effective in Perth. The pitch - being so nice and hard - helps you do that. Siraj benefited from this. He took out Steven Smith on day four with a ball that behaved one way on the way down - angling into the right-hander - and another way on the way up - nipping away off the seam. Since it barely lost any pace after pitching, even a great problem-solver like Smith found it hard to adjust to.

It is pretty much a given that throughout this Border-Gavaskar Trophy Bumrah will be putting pressure on Australia. But that may not always pay off if there is no pressure from the other end. Coming into the series, it wasn't certain that Siraj would be able to provide that. But there was no doubting that he would try.

On Siraj's last tour to Australia, when he was still waiting to make his Test debut, his father died. This was when Covid-19 rules were in operation and if he'd left for home, he would have had to undergo quarantine first before rejoining the squad. It would have hampered his chances of playing for India. His mother reminded him of that dream and told him to stay back and play. Play for his dad. Fulfil his dream. He did so, and returned to India as one of the stars of their famous Brisbane win. He went straight from the airport to visit his father's grave and pay his final respects.

Siraj has felt worse pain than his form deserting him or the frustrations of bowling in unresponsive conditions. He'll keep working on a way to bring the difference between his average at home and his average overseas (the gap is currently over 10) down but for now all he has to do is what he's shown he could do even in the most trying of times. Make that red ball fly off an Australian pitch.