Mohammed Siraj 'leader' at RCB, important for team's success: Adam Griffith

Obviously, you know, the start of the tournament had wasn’t a great time for us, especially in the power plan. That’s something we focused a lot on recently to make sure we we work really hard to get better starts for the group and I think tonight was one of our better ones for a while now. So it was just good to see the hard work of the boys pay off. Look I think we’ve swung the ball all tournament I think upfront but I think what we’ve done particularly in the last couple of games is we’ve bowled a better line. We we’ve talked a lot about bowling a lot straighter and and attacking the stumps as much as we can to challenge the batters defence there and make them play aggressive shots if they want to come at us that’s a challenge for them to do and and tonight the boys put them in exactly where we wanted them. Yeah, it’s been tough on him. He’s he’s sort of been in and out a little bit but I think he’s bowled really well this year. Probably the only game he struggled a bit was when everyone struggled against SRH. So look, I think he he brings a skill set to our bowling group that’s that is different to the rest of the guys. We don’t use it in the power play ’cause he doesn’t really swing the ball, but what he does tremendously well is his change UPS, His slower balls are excellent, he’s yorkers are are really good, he’s got a good bouncer. So I think through that middle phase and towards the back end of the innings with that skill set he’s got, he can create opportunities but he can also defend when he needs to and and I think he’s done that really well this season when he’s got the opportunity, yeah, it is one of our strengths. Obviously, you know we always want pace in the wicket here. We love it when it when we see it sailing through to the wicket keeper and it always swings here, no matter the conditions really with the wicket but but it we always find that it swings here and and not just for the first or first or second over it’ll often it’ll be the 3rd and 4th over where we still said I mean Yash got it to to go in the third over tonight. So when the wickets got pace in it when when we see it bouncing, we really enjoy that and as you said our batting group you know likes that as well. So if we could see fast wickets here we’d be very happy. Well, he, he’s the leader of our group. You know, he’s our most experienced bowler, especially among our Indian quicks. But even with our international guys, you know, he’s played a lot for India over the last few years and done really, really well. So having him up and going and bowling well, but it’s not just him bowling well, but it’s his aggression, it’s his body language, it’s his. You know, taking the batters on to try and get wickets is is such an important part of what we’re trying to do. So having him up and going, swinging the ball again, bowling with good pace, as I said, being aggressive is, is so important to us. Yeah, it’s it’s tough, but I mean it’s it’s tough for everyone. You know, everyone travels a lot. So you know, we’ve got a great medical staff and support staff here that that that keep the guys in really good condition. I think for the last two or three games we’ve had a, you know, a clean bill of health from the guys there. So it’s just about monitoring and understanding when the right time to bowl is because you still have to bowl, you still have to practice, you still have to get better, but also you need to be fresh, you need to be ready to go to perform. And I think Siraj has found a really good balance of that. Now he knows his body really well. He knows what he needs to do to prepare and and every now and again we might need to give him a little bit of a a push in that direction. But but he’s really good and you know and I’ve been with him now for for 5/5 or so years. So I can tell when he’s going well and I can tell when he needs a rest and you know we’re we’re pretty good at monitoring him now. Yeah, definitely. You know he’s like any other player when when they are, you know, fatigued, it’s it’s very important to give them that break that’s just as important as the training component, sometimes even more important. So you know, he’s a rhythm bowler as you said. You know his run up’s so important to what he does. So we want him fresh and running in hard, but finding that that in that optimal speed for his run up to make sure he’s going really well.