Fast bowler Mohammad Siraj took four wickets on Sunday India Taking a healthy 132-run lead in the second innings of the Edgbaston Test, England were bundled out for 284. The right-arm pacer took the prized wicket of former captain Joe Root and then wracked the tail of England, which included Sam Billings, Stuart Broad and Matthew Potts.
Siraj’s heroism with the ball on the third day has certainly taken India closer to a historic Test series win against England. Meanwhile, the Director of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Cricket Mike Hesson praised the Hyderabad pacer.
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Speaking with the franchise, Hesson cited ‘solid fundamentals’ due to paceman Siraj’s pace bowling in the rescheduled fifth Test.
“For me, Siraj had a good change of pace and had really good skills for white-ball cricket, but he had solid fundamentals behind him. You need your base skills; I think this is where first-class cricket and Test cricket comes in. He has bowled a lot of overs so it shows that he is fit,” Hesson said on Royalchallengers.com.
Siraj is one of the three players retained by RCB. Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell, ahead of the IPL mega auction earlier this year.
“He (Siraj) had a repeatable action, so I knew what would get me day to day. And as a coach, it’s very important. To work on the day and to come right out of the ball. He didn’t need to get his timing right. He worked in first-class cricket, he’s working in Test cricket now,” Hesson said.
Siraj has been exceptional in the longest format of the game since coming against Australia in the Test series Down Under.
“If there was one format he was going to do well at the start of his international career, it was probably Test cricket. I think at the beginning of the meeting of Simon (Katich), Mary and Virat (Kohli), where we were talking about the players, Virat was really confident about Siraj and his faith in death. And on different grounds at different times, he felt that Siraj had the skills that would still bring him success,” Hesson said.
(with agency input)
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