Mohammed Siraj’s hot temper has become a topic of discussion but Australian quick Josh Hazlewood says the Indian pacer is a “good character” who fires up the crowd and is passionate about the game like Indian superstar Virat Kohli. Siraj was involved in two incidents where his temper flared during the pink-ball Test that India lost by 10 wickets. In Australia’s first innings, Siraj threw the ball wide off the stumps near Marnus Labuschagne after the Australian batter pulled away from his stance, forcing the bowler to halt his run-up.
This occurred when a man holding a tower of beer cups walked into Labuschagne’s line of sight. The next day, Siraj was involved in a verbal altercation with Travis Head soon after cleaning him up, drawing the ire of the Adelaide crowd which booed him.
“He’s just a good character and it’s good to see sometimes,” said Hazlewood, who shared the dressing room with both Siraj and Kohli during his time at the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL.
“I really enjoyed my time at RCB with Siraj. He’s probably the leader of the attack there, to a degree. He’s another one who’s a bit like Virat, very passionate, goes with the flow of the game, gets the crowd up. He has bowled serious spells in the IPL in the last few years,” he added.
Hazlewood, who missed the second Test due to a side strain, had dismissed Kohli for 5 in the first innings in the opening Test at Perth. It was the fourth time the Australian quick dismissed Kohli in red-ball cricket.
“It just comes down to who executes well on the day, whether he leaves you well until the ball gets soft or someone else comes on the balls and doesn’t ball quite well enough,” he said.
“There’s a lot of match-ups like that throughout international cricket. You know, we’ve played each other so much. If you’ve been around for 10 years, you pretty much know each other inside out.” Hazlewood said the current crop of batters are much more eager to go after the ball as compared to the players who wielded the willow 10 years ago.
“There are different players in different teams there are some players you really need to be patient with. There are others who come after you, so you don’t have to be patient but they are dangerous because they can score.
“I don’t think betters are probably as patient as they were 10 years ago. They like to feel the ball and we’ve seen the way England play and even players in the Indian team with (Rishabh) Pant and (Nitish) Reddy and guys like that.” India suffered a 10-wicket loss in the pink ball Test as Australia levelled the five match series 1-1 following their 295-run loss in the opener. The two sides now head to Brisbane for the third match, starting December 14.
Australia have lost the last two matches in the Gabba and will look to get back to winning ways at the venue, where they have done well, traditionally.
The last time they played at the Gabba, pacer Shamar Joseph ripped through Australia to fashion West Indies 8-run win in the day night fixture.
“We always play pretty well in Brisbane (but) the last Test was obviously pink-ball,” Hazlewood said.
“The pink-ball gets quite soft in Brisbane quite early on, with the wicket being quite hard, it doesn’t have that thatch grass that we see here at Adelaide.
“So we’re back to the red-ball there, which suits us. We obviously haven’t won recently up there, but it’s a place we like to play as it suits our guys.
“It’s an experienced team, so we’ve all been there a lot of times. It’s probably more just the time difference – the going from day-night and sleeping in – to your sleeping patterns, getting that adjusted and getting back on track.”
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