Australia vs India 2018-19: Mohammed Siraj Claims an Unwanted Record on Debut

India made one change to their playing XI and got in debutant Mohammed Siraj into the playing XI. Siraj became the 225th Indian ODI player. However, the Hyderabad bowler didn’t have an ideal first day at the office as he conceded 76 runs in his 10 overs quota without any wickets in his column. Siraj was short in his length and he was punished by the Australian batsmen.

In fact, the figures (10-0-76-0) is the second most expensive for any Indian bowler on his ODI debut. Karsan Ghavri had conceded 83 in 11 overs while playing against England at Mecca of Cricket, Lord’s in 1975 in his maiden ODI appearance. Meanwhile, Amit Bhandari had leaked 75 runs in his 10 overs quota while playing against Pakistan in 2010 in Dhaka.

Siraj had a forgetful debut.

On the other hand, Mohammed Siraj could have had a wicket in his bag. Glenn Maxwell had timed the ball to perfection towards the mid-wicket region.

Rohit Sharma made a good effort to get his hand to the ball but could not grab the ball. Furthermore, Maxwell had another reprieve when he decided to go for the review and the ball was missing the stumps after the umpire had ruled the decision in favour of the tourists.

Thus, it wasn’t an ideal debut for Indian rookie bowler. However, this must have been a good learning curve for the greenhorn fast bowler. Siraj has thus far played three T20I matches in which he has scalped three wickets. In fact, he has been on the expensive side in the shortest format as he has given his runs at an economy of 12.33.

Australia has posted a par score of 298 runs after winning the toss and deciding to bat first with Shaun Marsh scoring a brilliant seventh ODI hundred.