Bereaved pacer Siraj savours special debut
MELBOURNE: India paceman Mohammed Siraj was urged by his captain Virat Kohli and his mother to stay in Australia and push for selection in the test side rather than head home to grieve with his family following the death of his father last month. On Saturday, at a sun-bathed Melbourne Cricket Ground, Siraj was rewarded for his tough decision as he took two wickets on an emotional debut to help India bowl Australia out for 195 on day one of the Boxing Day test.
Prior to Mohammed Shami’s injury, Hyderabad native Siraj had no assurances he would feature at all in the four-test series but he hit the pitch hard in the tour matches to put himself at the front of the queue.
The door opened when Shami suffered an arm fracture in the series opener, and Siraj found himself thrust into a muchchanged team needing to respond to the eight-wicket humiliation within three days at Adelaide Oval. Siraj had to bide his time on Saturday, as stand-in skipper Rahane Ajinkya opted for spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as first change bowler on a moist wicket in the morning.
The captain’s call proved a sound one, as Ashwin took two wickets to leave Australia shaky at 65 for three at lunch.
Siraj was finally thrown the ball after lunch and made his presence felt with a bouncer that struck Marnus Labuschagne on the helmet. Though wicketless from his first spell, Siraj returned to remove danger man Labuschagne for 48, helped by fellow debutant Shubman Gill’s fine catch at backward square leg. Siraj then trapped Cameron Green lbw for 12 with a ball that nipped back in after lulling the young all-rounder with a number of deliveries that moved away. With Ishant Sharma and Shami sidelined, there were fears in India that pacemen Jasprit Bumrah and Umesh Yadav would have to shoulder too big a burden over the remainder of the series but Siraj’s special day renewed hope the tourists might have the resources to claw their way back in Melbourne.
As a senior bowler, Bumrah was all praise for debutant Siraj, who was decent in his first outing in the traditional format.
“He has worked really hard and come up the ranks. He was eager to bowl in the first session itself. There wasn’t a lot happening after lunch and he (Siraj) bowled with a lot of control,” he said. “Suddenly he started getting some movement and wanted to make the best of it. Playing his first Test match, he bowled really well and had confidence of using all his skills. It’s a heartening sign for us and hopefully he will continue doing that.”
“Confidence key”
Indian batsmen would look to be “confident without being reckless” and take one session at a time, said Bumrah after a fine bowling performance put the visitors in command against Australia on the opening day of the second Test here.
“We are not looking too far ahead. We are looking at one session at a time,” he said.
“We don’t want to be conservative in our mindset and be positive. Control the controllables. Not being reckless but playing with confidence will be the motive going forward,” added the bowler, well aware of the challenge ahead. One of the striking moves by skipper Ajinkya Rahane was introducing Ashwin in the first hour of play.
“When we were bowling in the morning there was some moisture on the wicket, so you saw Ashwin and Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) got some spin.
“...because we wanted to make the most of the moisture, we were trying to use them, he (Ashwin) was getting good bounce,” Bumrah said after the end of the first day’s play. Rahane’s field placements came in for a lot of praise from none other than Shane Warne and Bumrah said that in the second session, the bowlers altered the line knowing that pitch was becoming easier to bat on. “There was constant discussions going on between bowlers and the captain. The wicket changed after the first session. It got better to bat on in the second session and moisture went away. We were just trying to communicate what kind of lines we wanted to bowl so that we can set the field accordingly. When there was less help, we tried to change the line accordingly,” he said.