Mohammed Siraj trumps teammates Navdeep Saini and Dan Christian in RCB's yorker challenge

If there is one team that has underachieved in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL), it is the Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have failed to bag a single title in the marquee tournament. Often blessed with supreme batting attacks over the years, it is their bowlers who have let them down the most in crunch situations.

The 13^th and 14^th editions though saw a refreshing change for the Challengers. Led by Mohammad Siraj, the Men in Red made the ball talk and caught everyone by surprise. Siraj, in particular, made everyone sit up and take notice of his pinpoint yorkers, bouncers, slower balls and swing. Former players and critics lauded his bowling and Ashish Nehra even called him better than Jasprit Bumrah skill-wise.

Recently, RCB shared a clip featuring Siraj, Navdeep Saini and Dan Christian who took part in a yorker challenge during IPL 2021. The RCB Yorker challenge took place during one of the team’s outdoor practice sessions. In the Bold Diaries video, a boundary rope rubber hoarding and glove were used as targets, with the paraphernalia placed on the crease for the RCB pace trio as target to hit.

Saini, Siraj and Christian battle it out

The task was simple for the pace bowlers as they had to execute as many yorkers as possible in the 30 balls they bowled in tandem.

Saini started things off by hitting the bull’s eye on his very first attempt. Siraj duly followed his RCB and India teammate, but the seasoned campaigner Christian hit the stumps and not the target while attempting his first yorker.

The yorker target was also varied during the challenge, with the trio bowling different lines to aim the target. The RCB trio got their yorkers right 23 times out of 30, with Saini being the most successful with a 92% success rate. Siraj and Christian returned with a 66.66% success rate.

Siraj and Saini will soon be seen in action for India as the former will depart to England to play the ICC World Test Championship final and subsequent five-match Test series against England. On the other hand, the latter is almost certain to named in India’s squad for the white-ball series against Sri Lanka.