Mohammed Siraj ‘the find of the Australia tour’ by Ravi Shastri.
Key sentence:
- The ‘catch of the tour’ was right-arm pacer Mohammed Siraj, as per India’s head coach, Ravi Shastri.
- Siraj was congratulated by the former India all-rounder for battling racist taunts and also being solid despite missing his father during the tour.
- Three Test games on tour were played by the Indian pacer, and also 13 wickets were scalped.
Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, T Natarajan, and Washington Sundar have been five debutants of India in Australia. If we include Shardul Thakur, which has barely bowled just ten deliveries before even being ruled out of an injury during his debut Test against the West Indies, then India’s rookie tally ties their all-time high of six debutants throughout England in the 1996 series.
As Ravi Shastri tweeted:
Although the ’96 England brought India legends such as Rahul Dravid as well as Sourav Ganguly, the 2020-21 Australia tour also showed signs of bringing India icons for the future as most of the five debutants, as well as Thakur, impressed the experts with their performances, although in various degrees.
Who was the best, however? The ‘catch of the tour’ was right-arm pacer Mohammed Siraj, as per India’s head coach, Ravi Shastri. On Friday, Shastri tweeted, “Figure of the tour for sprucing up the bowling attacks the way that he did – Mohd Siraj,”
Mohammad Siraj lost his father at the beginning of the series:
Siraj was congratulated by the former India all-rounder for battling racist taunts and also being solid despite missing his father during the tour.
“He struggled through personal losses, racial remarks as well as channelled them to make a place in the team huddle.
Just before the beginning of the series in Australia, Siraj lost his dad. But the pacer wanted to hang back and follow his father’s wish to see him playing red-ball cricket.
As luck would have it, in the second Test in Melbourne, Siraj remembered his late father’s hope when he made his Test debut to replace the wounded Mohammed Shami.
Team India made History:
By the period India went into another fourth test in Brisbane with their series locked at 1-1, when Jasprit Bumrah and R Ashwin, were both ruled out with injuries, Siraj was promoted to the cornerstone of the battle.
In the Brisbane Test, the Hyderabad seamer, who’d been subjected to racist abuse not once but twice in the third test in Sydney, caught his maiden five-wicket bundle to help India build history as they have become the first team to defeat Australia for the very first time in 21 years in Brisbane.
Siraj was abused by Australian crowed:
Commenting on the Sydney segment, Siraj said that on Thursday: “I was abused by the Australian crowd, which made me mentally tough. My primary concern was not to let it hamper my performance.”
My role was to tell that I was being abused, and I told Captain (Ajinkya) Rahane the whole matter. Umpires advised us you should leave the game as well as walk off the ground, but Ajju Bhai advised the umpire that we’re not going to leave, we’re respecting the game.
Three Test games on tour were played by the Indian pacer, and also 13 wickets were scalped.
And in the fourth Test to take the series 2-1, India defeated Australia by three wickets against those odds.
