Nobody gave me wickets for free: Siraj credits hard work for opening day success against WI

AHMEDABAD: India’s pace bowling mainstay Mohammed Siraj attributed his opening day success to “hard work”, conceding that he had to toil for each of his four wickets on the opening day of the first Test against the West Indies in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

Siraj dismantled the West Indies attack, making the tourists regret their decision to bat first after winning the toss instantly. He ended the first innings with figures of 4/40 in his 14-over spell and moved to the top of the wicket-taking chart in the ongoing World Test Championship Cycle with 30 scalps.

While Siraj had to put in the hard yards to scythe scalps in England, wickets came relatively easily to him against the lower-ranked opposition. When asked about his outing in Ahmedabad, Siraj was quick to rule out the notion that his time on the field passed with ease.

“Sir, even here, I took four wickets only by working hard. You only get wickets by working hard. I got wickets in England by working hard, and I worked hard for them here too. It isn’t as if anyone gave me wickets free of cost. No one gave me that fifth wicket. All four wickets came from hard work,” Siraj said while speaking to reporters as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.

Across his four wickets, Siraj, with a wobbly seam, outfoxed West Indies captain Roston Chase. The dismissal was set when the ball left Siraj’s hands with a scrambled seam. Often in such a scenario, the ball acts like an off-cutter and nips into the right-handed batter. However, on this occasion, the ball straightened after landing and caught a leading edge to the wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel behind the stumps.

“The wobble-seam [ball] is like this, that it sometimes straightens and sometimes cuts [into the right-hand batter],” Siraj said at his press conference at the end of the day’s play. “That ball kind of straightened towards the shiny side. I mostly look to move the wobble-seam [ball] in, but it kept straightening towards the shiny side, and took the edge, caught behind,” he added.

Siraj’s four-wicket haul and Jasprit Bumrah’s three-for forced the West Indies to fold their innings on 162. In reply, India lost Yashasvi Jaiswal (36) and Sai Sudharsan (7), but KL Rahul’s unbeaten fifty propelled India to 121/2 at the end of the day’s play. (ANI)