Bowling plan was to build pressure from both ends: Mohammed Siraj

A historic series, a terrific triumph, and Team India found a massive depth in their squad during the long Australia series Down Under. When the injuries started to ruffle a few feathers, there were youngsters who got the opportunity, and they grabbed with full grit. One such star of the series was Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer, Mohammed Siraj. 

The Hyderabad-born player had to go through so much prior to the start of the campaign. On top of it, he also was racially abused by the Australian during the Test matches. Siraj proved to be an exponential element for India’s bowling arsenal in the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

Speaking with the TimesofIndia.com, the 26-year-old explained how the team prepared for a big face-off at Gabba where the stakes were high and the conditions were winner takes all. He also talked about considering the injuries sustained by senior players, how the young lads managed to contribute to register an emphatic win.

"Shardul and I sat for some time in Brisbane and planned how to build pressure. Of course, a team is under pressure when it loses its big players. We also lost some big players due to injuries. But such is our support and coaching staff that they can make anything possible," Siraj told Times of India.

Mohammed Siraj was India’s pick of the bowlers with 13 wickets to his name

"The bowling plan was to build pressure from both ends. When you build pressure, a batsman will surely make a mistake. That's what happened. We built the pressure and the Australians gave away their wickets," the 26-year-old added.

The four pacers, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, Navdeep Saini, and Mohammed Siraj, were given a set of instructions that proved to be instrumental in helping India to achieve a positive end result. Siraj also praised his RCB teammate Saini for showing the fighting spirit and coming back to the field to bowl even after getting an injury.

"We (Shardul, Natarajan, Saini, and Siraj) selected some areas where we had to bowl regularly. We decided to cut off certain scoring areas. We didn't want to give many runs. I would give a lot of credit to Saini also. He got injured and then again came back onto the field. He is a brave bowler," Siraj said.

[Times of India input]