"Have always thought of him as my role model" - Mohammed Siraj on Dale Steyn

Team India and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) pacer Mohammed Siraj recently stated that he idolizes former South African speedster, Dale Steyn.

During his appearance on the RCB podcast, Siraj mentioned that he was fascinated to see Steyn bowl at an express pace, even towards the fag end of his international career. He admitted that, apart from the bowling skills, he also admired the legendary seamer for his on-field aggression.

He said:

"I have always thought of him as my role model because of his aggression, his pace, and his outswing. When I watched him for the first time with those long hair and tattoos, it was a match against India where he took 4-5 wickets with reverse swing.

"He was bowling 140+ at the start of his spell and even at the end of the day he was bowling at 140+. The pace never went down. He was already old by now. I was fascinated by how he was still managing the pace even by the end of the day."

Notably, Siraj got a chance to share the dressing room with Steyn when the latter was roped in by RCB for the 2019 and 2022 editions of the cash-rich league.

"Learned a lot from talking to him" - Mohammed Siraj on playing alongside Dale Steyn in the IPL

Dale Steyn is considered one of the greatest exponents of the outswinger by many. During the podcast, Mohammed Siraj also spoke about learning how to bowl the outswinger from the South African pacer during the IPL season in 2020.

The 29-year-old recalled how he was able to dismiss Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi during RCB's match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) with outswingers after having a discussion with Steyn a day before the game.

On this, he said:

"In 2020, when Dale Steyn was with us, I talked to him a lot about runup for outswing, different angles for right-handed batsmen and left-handed batsmen. I learned a lot from talking to him. When I performed against KKR, I was talking to him about outswing a day earlier in the nets.

"Then next day when I took two wickets on outswing against KKR where I bowled Nitish Rana and got Rahul Tripathi caught behind, Dale Steyn was immensely happy."

Siraj was retained by the Bangalore-based franchise ahead of the IPL 2023 mini-auction and will ply his trade for them in the forthcoming season as well.

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RCB are set to open their IPL 2023 campaign with a clash against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 2.