Virender Sehwag has placed Mohammed Siraj in the same mental bracket as four Indian bowling legends, calling the fearless approach the one quality that connects Siraj to Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, and Ashish Nehra.
Virender Sehwag Explains What Makes Mohammed Siraj Special
Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble and Ashish Nehra were fearless bowlers. They never changed their plans because of the fear of being hit for a four or a six. They always backed their strengths and bowled where… pic.twitter.com/e7H2xHuCvC
— Sportz Central (@SportzcentralHQ) July 20, 2026
“Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble and Ashish Nehra were fearless bowlers. They never changed their plans because of the fear of being hit for a four or a six. They always backed their strengths and bowled where they believed they could get wickets. Mohammed Siraj has the same mindset. He is not afraid to attack the batter, and that fearless approach is what makes him a quality fast bowler.”
Virender Sehwag, X (@virendersehwag), July 2026
Sehwag posted this on his verified X account in July 2026 while Siraj is on a rest period, sitting out India’s white-ball tour of England. No official response from Siraj or the BCCI has been made at time of publication.
Coming from a pundit, this would read as strong praise. Coming from Sehwag, it is testimony.
Sehwag played for India from 2001 to 2013. He shared a dressing room with all four bowlers he named across that period. Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, and Ashish Nehra were his teammates. He fielded behind them. He watched them bowl from the other end. When Sehwag says Siraj has their mindset, he is drawing from 12 years of watching that quality from inside the same team.
Two Spinners. Two Seamers. One Mindset.
Sehwag did not group Siraj with other fast bowlers. He grouped him with four bowlers from completely different disciplines. Zaheer Khan was a left-arm swing bowler. Ashish Nehra was a left-arm seamer. Anil Kumble was a leg-spinner. Harbhajan Singh was an off-spinner. Not one of them bowled like Siraj. Not one operated from the same angle or method.
Sehwag crossed disciplines rather than staying within fast bowling, which tells you that what he identified in Siraj has nothing to do with how Siraj holds the ball. It is about what Siraj does when he gets hit.
The one quality those four bowlers shared across very different skills was this: a boundary did not change their plan. Whatever a batter did off any delivery, the next ball came from the same conviction. Sehwag watched that quality in all four across 12 years. He is saying Siraj has it.
Insider Read:
What makes a fearless bowler dangerous is not aggression. It is certainty.
Most bowlers attack the batter. Fewer bowlers attack with the same plan after being hit. When a boundary comes off a good delivery, the natural instinct is to adjust: widen the line, change the pace, try something else. That instinct makes sense. The boundary looks like information, so the bowler responds to it. What Kumble, Harbhajan, Zaheer, and Nehra refused to do was treat the boundary as information about the delivery. For them, the delivery was right. The outcome was noise.
A batter facing that certainty has no way to reset the bowler. Hitting a six does not remove the threat. The same plan comes back on the next ball. That is what makes a batter genuinely uncomfortable, more than pace or turn alone.
Sehwag spent his career on the batting side of bowlers who had that quality. There is one thread inside his comparison that makes the point even more precisely.
Ashish Nehra, one of the four fearless bowlers Sehwag named, is now the head coach of Gujarat Titans, the team Siraj has played for since 2025. Years before he became Siraj’s coach at Gujarat Titans, Nehra said publicly that Siraj should never forget what his strengths are. The bowler Sehwag calls fearless is now the coach teaching Siraj to trust his plan. Sehwag’s statement connects those two points without saying so.
Siraj is not part of India’s current England squad, rested under a workload management programme. India’s bowling came under scrutiny early in the tour after their biggest T20I defeat in the opening match. His last T20I was in February 2026 and his last ODI in January 2026. In between, he took 23 wickets across five Tests against England in 2025, the most by any bowler in that series.
When Siraj dismantled his former team RCB in IPL 2025 after being dropped from India’s Champions Trophy squad, Sehwag framed his praise around hurt and motivation.
“He has that fire. And somewhere I feel he is hurt that he wasn’t part of the Champions Trophy squad, and I saw that fire. That’s what we expect from a young fast bowler.”
Virender Sehwag, Cricbuzz, April 2, 2025
This time, Sehwag is not reading fire. He is reading method.
Sources
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