Mohammed Siraj, Indian pacer on Saturday opened up about his ‘Finger on Lips’ celebration after taking four wickets in England’s first innings.
Mohammed Siraj led India’s charge to bundle out England for 391 in the first innings of the second Test. Skipper Joe Root was left stranded on 180* as James Anderson was dismissed on the final ball of day three.
Mohammed Siraj: The Finger On Lips Celebration Style Is For Critics
Mohammed Siraj was the pick of the Indian bowlers with four wickets in his first appearance at Lord’s and was asked about his “finger on lips” gesture after getting each and every wicket.
When asked about his new celebration style, Siraj after the close of play, said “The celebration style is for haters (critics), as they used to say a lot of things about me, that I cannot do this thing…So I thought of answering them with my ball.”
The India pacer bowled consistently at one length and focused on accuracy to dismantle the English batting lineup.
“Fast bowlers play an important role in England. We were bowling at consistent lengths. Our plan was to bowl consistently at one length,” said Siraj“I was looking to bowl at one spot consistently even during my Ranji Trophy days. My simple plan was to not try much hit at one spot consistently,” he added.
Explaining the reason behind bowling the bouncer to Jonny Bairstow, Siraj said, “The wicket wasn’t helping that much so we planned to use a bouncer as after the next eight overs, a new ball would have been taken. So the plan was to bowl short balls.”
Put in to bat, India rode on KL Rahul‘s classy 129 to post 364 in the first innings, but England skipper Joe Root struck an unbeaten 180 to help England post 391 in their first essay and take a 27-run lead. For England, apart from Joe Root’s unbeaten 180, Jonny Bairstow’s 57 and Rory Burns’ 49 were other notable contributions.
Mohammed Siraj: The Wicket Has Improved For Batting
England lead by 27 runs and when India takes on the field on Sunday, the visitors will look to score as many runs as possible in the second innings.
“The wicket has improved for batting we will look to put on runs on the board. We try to score as many runs as possible,” said Siraj.
Joe Root’s unbeaten 180 guided the hosts to 391 in their first innings. Mohammed Siraj (4/94) and Ishant Sharma (3/69) shone with the ball for India. Mohammed Shami scalped 2 while Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja remained wicketless.
India will bat on Sunday in the second innings. Earlier, Joe Root became only the second English batsman after Alastair Cook to score 9000 runs in Test cricket. After a wicketless first session, the Indian bowlers managed to pick a couple of wickets after lunch. Mohammed Siraj dismissed Jonny Bairstow (57) while Ishant Sharma knocked over Jos Buttler (23). However, Joe Root kept the English scoreboard moving by his brilliant batting.
The focus will be on Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara when India bats as the duo are out of form. The experienced duo of Cheteshwar Pujara and Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane have not been at their best of late, averaging in the 20s this year.
While Cheteshwar Pujara made 4, 12 not out, and 9 in the three innings in the England series so far, Ajinkya Rahane managed just 5 and 1 in the two innings he got to play.