Mohammed Siraj’s fairy-tale journey in the game took yet another leap on Saturday (November 4) when head coach Ravi Shastri handed him his debut cap. Son of an auto- rickshaw driver, Siraj was all emotional when the national anthem of the team ended.
The ecstasy, however, soon turned into despair as the Hyderabad pacer endured a terrible outing in Rajkot with the New Zealand batsmen taking a special liking for the debutant. The right-arm pacer managed to get the prized wicket of opposition skipper Kane Williamson, but his muted celebration said it all. He ended up conceding 54 runs off his four overs, thus becoming the Indian bowler to concede the second-highest number of runs on T20I debut.
His spell played a big part in deciding the outcome of the game as India went on to lose the game by 40 runs while chasing a daunting 197.
Speaking after the game, Jasprit Bumrah, who was seen having a long chat with Siraj in-between the game, revealed the advise he offered to his inexperienced teammate. The Indian pace spearhead went on to concede that the wicket was not ideal for pacers.
“I was just saying that as a bowler when you get hit, you learn,” Bumrah said. “It’s very easy to say that he’s come from here, he should do well. It’s difficult because as a bowler, on this wicket it was challenging and for a new guy to come in against such opposition it’s difficult. I was just trying to give him confidence that it’s ok, every bowler goes for runs, you get hit. But this is how you’ll learn and you’ll come back so I’m sure that whenever he plays more, he’ll be better than before,” he said.
“It’s okay, it was his first game. On a difficult wicket it’s always difficult,” added. Bumrah. “He’s coming into the new team so it takes time for a bowler to adjust. He’ll learn. As a bowler when you get hit, you learn a lot so I think after this experience he’ll be a better bowler when he comes into the next match. You can give tips but in the end you are on your own, isn’t it?”
Even Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar could fail to make much of an impact, and as a result, the Kiwis were off to a flying start. Martin Guptill and Colin Munro shared a 105-run stand before the latter’s sizzling century took the visitors to a huge total.
“This was a difficult wicket because when we were bowling with the new ball, it was coming onto the bat really well and they had a good start. For us it was that how much we can contribute. We were trying our best and Munro was also going berserk and he was also a bit lucky as well because one or two catches here and things would have been different. We were just trying to create pressure, so it’s ok it happens. Some days some of your plans don’t work,” Bumrah said
“You can’t have a fixed plan; you can change your plan according to the wicket. So over here if you had a fixed plan that you bowl slower balls, he was hitting them really well. So you have to change the plan during the match so at that time you ask questions which I always do to seniors that what is happening and what change can I make.”
“We’ve been playing for a long period of time so we were having our recovery and training. We were not just sitting in the hotel and sleeping, we were training there as well. If we had won the match, the questions would have been different but it’s okay,” he added.
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