Mohammed Siraj just loves to get under the skin of the opposition players. The ace fast-bowler has developed a knack of unsettling the opposition players with his verbal volleys. And it did not take him long to use the same ploy in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship final between India and Australia at the Oval in London.
Captain Rohit Sharma won a good toss and elected to bowl first on a pitch that looked like a pace bowlers’ paradise. Mohammed Siraj once again made an early impact as he struck with the new ball to dismiss the dangerous Usman Khawaja.
In only the 4th over of the day, Mohammed Siraj had Khawaja caught behind the stumps with his highly effective wobble seam delivery. The ball nipped away slightly after landing and took the faintest of edges from Khawaja’s bat before going straight into wicketkeeper KS Bharat’s gloves. Khawaja departed even without opening his scoring after facing 10 balls.
Mohammed Siraj
In his very next over, Mohammed Siraj tried to unsettle new batsman Marnus Labuschagne. On the first ball of the sixth over, he bowled a full delivery and the Australia star defended it towards the off-side. Siraj then decided to take an extended follow through as he wanted to get under the batsman’s skin.
He first gave a stare to Labuschagne before saying something to the right-handed batsman. Labuschagne, on the other hand, seemingly did not react before Siraj turned around and started walking towards his bowling mark.
Here is a clip of the incident:
Siraj has started it sooner than before.
With the ball, as well as with the tongueWTCFinal pic.twitter.com/n49sVWUAt7
— Vinayak (@vinayaksayswhat) June 7, 2023
Talking about the ongoing game, Australia were on 22 for 1 after 10 overs at the time of writing this report. Veteran opener David Warner was on 13 while Labuschagne was on 8. Earlier, India decided against including ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing eleven to make room for fast-bowling allrounder Shardul Thakur.
Playing XIs:
Australia:
David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
India:
Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj