Manchester: With India’s hopes of winning their first series win in England in 18 years now facing a do-or-die situation, starting from the fourth Test scheduled to begin on July 23 at Old Trafford, fast bowler Mohammed Siraj revealed he is still heartbroken over the 22-run defeat at Lord’s.
Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja were battling the English bowlers in the third session of Day 5 and seemed to be inching closer to the target, before the pacer defended off Shoaib Bashir but the ball rolled back onto the stumps, dislodging the bail.
“I had taken the final wicket in 2021 as well. I am a very emotional person; it could have been 2-1. Jaddu bhai fought very hard. But then I said to myself that the series is not over and I will work on my batting. We kept working hard on our batting since Australia. The 22-run loss was heartbreaking,” said Siraj in the press conference.
The 31-year-old acknowledged that if it was not for that unlucky dismissal, the result could have been very different.
“To middle the ball and still get bowled, the way we were batting together, I was feeling confident and thought I will not get out today. But it was unlucky and it was heartbreaking because the result could have been entirely different,” he added.
The Lord’s Test seemed to kick fire into the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series with Zak Crawley and Shubman Gill getting into the thick of it in the final over on Day 3. What followed was an extremely aggressive Siraj who kept sledging the England batters in hopes of throwing them off their game.
Siraj spoke on his mindset when involved in such heated moments. “There are no plans regarding this. When you are bowling, you are in another zone; your focus is on taking wickets, so you don’t know what you say. You want to divert the batter — like when I asked Root, ‘Where is the Bazball?'”
When asked if he is going to continue his aggressive approach, Siraj replied with a simple but effective “yes”.
(IANS)
