Siraj was peppered with a barrage of bouncers by the Aussie pacers during the second Test.
Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has backed Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj to not bow down to Australians and be at his aggressive best during the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Siraj was involved in a heated exchange with Australian batter Travis Head during the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, which led to the Indian bowler facing boos from the crowd.
Head smashed 140 off 141 balls with 17 boundaries and 4 sixes before getting knocked over by Siraj’s yorker. The right-arm quick celebrated the wicket animatedly and gave a fiery send-off to the left-hander, who wasn’t one bit pleased and had a verbal duel with the bowler.
During India’s second innings, Siraj was peppered with a barrage of bouncers by the Aussie fast bowlers.
“Siraj is a number 10 batter. No big deal. If somebody is bowling a bouncer, he is going to struggle. So you can’t really fault him for that. Whatever happened, clearly, I think the Australians are charged up. They were looking to get back at Siraj, but I don’t think is going to be bothered by that. When he has the ball in his hand in Gabba, he is going to give it back to them doubly in kind," Gavaskar was quoted as saying by India Today.
Gavaskar also questioned India’s strategy of not bowling bouncers to exploit Travis Head’s weakness against short-pitched deliveries.
“Well, I wish India could have done that with Travis Head. India bowled about four bounces to him. They bowled four bounces to a man who is reputed not to be comfortable against the bouncers. So it just tells you about the planning that the bowlers did, because if you bowled bounces to Head, maybe like we’ve been saying, the World Test Championship final 2023, the World Cup final, 2023. Everywhere we’ve not really tested him with the bouncer, at least till he gets to 25–30 runs. Maybe he might be able to go at it away for boundaries and six. Good luck to him. But if you get the right feel, then we might be able to do that," Gavaskar added.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is currently poised at 1-1, with the third Test scheduled to be held at the Gabba from December 14.