CHENNAI: “In my 10-year career, I had never taken two full months off,” Mohammed Siraj tried to explain about the last month where he had struggled to find his old self. He had spent a little over three days of play on the field in hot and gruelling conditions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, during the Duleep Trophy final. Having bowled 41 overs across two innings for South Zone, understandably he looks spent.

Right from the second Test in Sri Lanka and through the course of the final, where he returned wicketless in first innings before taking 1/47 in the second against East Zone, questions were raised over his form, rhythm, how his pace was not up to the mark and why Siraj is not bowling like the Siraj the cricketing world knows.

It is not that the 32-year-old does not know what went wrong. In fact, he is very much aware of it. Siraj, like many of his generation, comes from the mold of fast bowlers who have trained their bodies to put down the overs regularly to be in rhythm. So, when he is not finding that zone, the only way for him to get out of the rut is to run in all day and get the overs in. He might not be hitting the full pace. His body might now be feeling like it. The conditions may be hot, humid and the pitch may be flat. Siraj would still show up and try his best by giving his all in his bowling. That is just how he operates.

So, when he had a two-month-long break after the Indian Premier League — Siraj is a Test regular but not so much in other formats — the Hyderabad pacer’s body struggled to cope with it. "Every bowler's body is different, but mine doesn't handle long breaks well. A short breather is fine, but in my 10-year career, I had never taken two full months off.  I was working out in the gym and bowling occasionally, but no amount of practice can replicate match intensity. It was a new experience, but a valuable learning curve for me going forward," Siraj explained.