India, Rohit Sharma, Australia
Mohammed Siraj [Photo-Twitter]

Going into the Brisbane Test, Mohammed Siraj was just two Test old and was the seniormost bowler in the side as India fielded a young and inexperienced bowling attack. Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini have played a Test each while T Natarajan and Washington Sundar were making their respective Test debuts.

However, the bowlers plotted a strategy that helped India breach the ‘Fortress Gabba’ and register a historic match and series victory. Siraj reveals that they had planned to choke the Australian batsmen for runs, which will create pressure on them, helping to carve out wickets on a good batting surface.

Mohammed Siraj
Mohammed Siraj claimed his maiden five-wicket haul [Image Credits: Twitter]
The pacer says they losing several bowlers to injuries, but with the support of the coaching staff, they devised this strategy, which paid off well for them – in Australia’s first innings Siraj, Saini, and Sundar bowled with an economy of less than 3, while Thakur and Natarajan picked wickets on the other end.

“The bowling plan was to build pressure from both ends. When you build pressure, a batsman will surely make a mistake. That’s what happened. We built the pressure and the Australians gave away their wickets,” Mohammed Siraj told Times of India.

“Shardul and I sat for some time in Brisbane and planned how to build pressure. Of course, a team is under pressure when it loses its big players. We also lost some big players due to injuries. But such is our support and coaching staff that they can make anything possible,” Siraj added.

Natarajan bowls unbelievable yorkers: Mohammed Siraj

T Natarajan, Zaheer Khan
T Natarajan and Rohit Sharma [Image Credits: Getty]
Mohammed Siraj, who picked 13 wickets in 3 Test matches including his maiden fifer, lavished high praises on T Natarajan. As the left-arm pacer made his Test debut at the Gabba, he became the first Indian to make his debut in all three formats on a single tour; he was initially selected as a net bowler.

Siraj has observed the Tamil Nadu pacer is calm and soft-spoken and is confident in his bowling skills, in particular, the yorkers – Natarajan bowled the most number of yorkers in the IPL 2020.

“Natarajan came as a net bowler. He made his debuts in T20Is then ODIs and then Tests. He is a good bowler. He stays calm and doesn’t speak much. He knows what he has to do. He bowls unbelievable yorkers,” Mohammed Siraj further said.

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