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Sunil Gavaskar said Mohammed Siraj will return the favour of short-pitched bowling to the Australians at The Gabba in Brisbane.
Mohammed Siraj reacts after picking up a wicket (AP)
Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar backed Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj to not bow down to Australians and return their hostility during the third Test of the five-match series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Siraj was involved in a verbal altercation with Australian batter Travis Head during the day-night Test in Adelaide after which the Indian bowler was subjected to sheers and boos from the crowd. Head had struck a splendid 141-ball knock of 140 before being castled by Siraj, who went on to give him an aggressive send-off following an exchange of words.
The Aussie too attacked Siraj when he walked out to bat in India’s second innings with a barrage of bouncers.
“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 give it back to them doubly in kind,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying by India Today.
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Gavaskar also felt the Indian bowlers for not using a similar bouncer strategy against Travis Head, arguing that the Australian batter’s trials with the ‘short stuff’ could have been exploited.
“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.
