The Indian fast bowler Mohammed Siraj, who got four wickets during England’s first innings in the ongoing Edgbaston test match, reckons that one difference between the Indian pace attack and the attack that England faced against New Zealand recently is that all the Indian bowlers can crank up speeds of 140 kph or beyond, which wasn’t quite the case with the Kiwi attack.
Mohammed Siraj, who came out to address the press conference at the end of the third day’s play at Edgbaston, said that the Indian team was well aware of the fact that Jonny Bairstow was coming into this test match full of confidence because of his heroics against New Zealand, but their plan wasn’t anything specific against Bairstow. The Indian bowlers just wanted to do the basics right.
According to Siraj, Bairstow was always going to play attacking cricket, but the Indian bowlers knew that it was a matter of one delivery, whether it was an inswinger or the ball moving off the surface, but it was just one ball that could have stopped the onslaught and that’s what they were looking for even when Bairstow was playing his shots.
Mohammed Siraj doesn’t think a target of 350 or more will be easy to chase for England
India added more than 100 runs to their already big first-innings lead overnight and at stump on day 3, the visitors were leading by more than 250 runs with 7 wickets in hand. Even though England chased down targets of more than 270 thrice in a row against New Zealand, Siraj is of the view if India sets a target of more than 350, it won’t be easy for England to chase it down.
Mohammed Siraj, however, admitted that the nature of the pitch has changed slightly and while it was a bit difficult to bat on initially on the first day of the test match, it has got better as the test match progressed.
