Mohammed Siraj and Sanjay Manjrekar
Mohammed Siraj and Sanjay Manjrekar

Mohammed Siraj has come in for some fire from former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar for his poor performances of late. His words came after India lost the first Test to New Zealand that was played in Bengaluru.

India was thrashed for 46 in their first innings after skipper Rohit Sharma erred by winning the toss and opting to bat first on day two after day one was washed out by rain. Matt Henry, with five wickets, and Will O’Rourke, with four, ripped through Indian batting. KL Rahul made a duck in the first innings.

In response, Devon Conway (91), Rachin Ravindra (134), and Tim Southee (65) helped New Zealand score 402. In the second innings, India scored 462 runs, with 150 from Sarfaraz Khan and 99 from Rishabh Pant. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma also struck 50s. KL Rahul made 12 runs in the second innings.

Set 107 runs to win, New Zealand achieved the target with 8 wickets in hand, registering their first Test win in India after 1988.

While Jasprit Bumrah bowled his heart out taking 3 wickets in total, he got very little support from his fellow pacer Mohammed Siraj, who picked 2/84 in New Zealand’s first innings. Siraj was bowling all over the place and bowled well only in patches.

Even in his previous two Tests, against Bangladesh, Siraj managed just 4 wickets in total. And Sanjay Manjrekar felt that the time has come to put Siraj in the spotlight and analyze his performance.

“You’ve got to now put Mohammed Siraj in the spotlight. I just love his attitude. I mean that dive that he put in while he was in the middle of a spell. Those are the things to admire. But finally, this test match has been about fast bowers bringing their team teams into the game. And that’s where I thought India wanted more from Siraj than experience bowl now.

And I was surprised that Rohit Sharma went to him for this reason as well. You might know go to Boer and if he’s not bowling well, you might still want to bowl him more. Because of his track record and recent form. Suraj hasn’t had that give Suraj that impression that,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo.

Mohammed Siraj must be shown his numbers of late: Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar also spoke about how Mohammed Siraj bowled two spells of 7 overs each and failed to produce a result. India desperately needed a wicket at that stage defending 107 runs, but Siraj let down his captain Rohit Sharma.

This also led to Rohit over bowl Jasprit Bumrah, and under bowl Ravi Ashwin, as per Sanjay Manjrekar. The ex-Mumbai batter also stated that Siraj tends to fly under the radar despite his recent poor performances.

Manjrekar pointed out that Akash Deep, who impressed against Bangladesh and England, should be given a chance in Pune over Mohammed Siraj, who needs to get his rhythm and effectiveness back.

“We are concerned about your fault and that should be enough because he’s a trier. He’s got some skills but somewhere you ten tend to feel that he’s flying under the radar, a little bit with his returns and I think somewhere the team management or anyone has to sort of bring that into focus and that should be perhaps a way to get him back in because there aren’t too many around who you can see are definitely better than a moment. Sirak then Akash Deep come in in case there is something there in Pune for the seam bowler but Siraj must be shown his numbers of late,” Manjrekar signed off.

The second Test between India and New Zealand will be played in Pune’s MCA Stadium from October 24 onwards.

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