My plan was to bowl dot balls to build pressure on the Australian batsmen, said debutant speedster Mohammed Siraj, who got to bowl his first over in Test cricket only in the second session of Day 1 of the second match here, on Saturday. He went on to take two wickets, including that of the dangerous Marnus Labuschagne, in 15 overs as Australia were all out for 195.
“After lunch when I came in, it had turned into a batting wicket and my plan was to bowl as many dot balls as possible and build pressure,” Siraj told India’s fielding coach and his fellow Hyderabadi R. Sridhar in an interview after the day’s play. A video of the interviews has been uploaded by the BCCI website.
Since both belong to Hyderabad, the interview was riddled with Hindi lingo typical to the city.
“My hands were itching to bowl out there, and after lunch when Ajju bhai [Ajinkya Rahane] told me to bowl, I began warming up. Then he said to me ‘you’ll only bowl for two overs’. Jadeja was to be brought on and rightly so because there was moisture on the wicket and it was helpful for the spinners,” said Siraj.
Siraj said that he was particularly proud of the way he got his second wicket. The 26-year-old fast bowler took time to generate swing but once he did, Siraj was able to set up Cameron Green.
“I was trying to come close to the wickets and then to go wide of it. In swing comes naturally to me. To Cameron Green, my away swingers were landing well too. After bowling a few inswingers and I bowled two complete overs of outswing. Then I bowled one ball which was the inswinger that got him. It felt nice to set him up and get his wicket,” said Siraj.
Jasprit Bumrah was the most successful Indian bowler with four wickets while R Ashwin bagged three. Siraj finished his first day in Test cricket with satisfactory figures of 15-4-40-2.
India was 36 for one wicket at the close. India trail 0-1 in the four-Test series, after losing the first match by eight wickets in Adelaide.
