Former Australian captain Mark Taylor believes that Mohammed Siraj tends to celebrate the wicket prematurely without waiting for the umpire’s decision and his teammates should have a word with a pacer to address this as it is giving him a ‘bad look’.
During the second test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, Siraj bowled a full-length delivery that hit Marnus Labuschagne’s pads and Siraj did not even turn back and appeal as he began celebrating, expecting umpire Richard Illingworth to give it out.
However, the onfield umpire remains unmoved. Siraj tried to convince Rohit Sharma to take a DRS. The India captain however, turned his request down after a lengthy discussion with his teammates.
Taylor said Siraj charges down the wicket towards teammates, without checking the umpire’s decision when he thinks that he has got a batter out.
“I think with Mohammed Siraj, I’d like to see some of the Indian players have a chat with him, not so much what happened with Travis Head but how when he thinks he’s got a batter out he doesn’t turn around and actually acknowledge the umpire whether he’s given it out or not,” told Taylor.
“I think that’s the bad look for him and the game. I love his exuberance, I love his competitive nature, I love the fact we’ve got a really good series going on but there is also the respect of the game that needs to be upheld.”
“I think a little word from one of the senior players would go a long way,” he said.
Siraj has been the topic of discussion after his heated exchange with Travis head on day 02 of Adelaide Test, which Australia won by 10 wickets to level the series 1-1.
Travis Head struck a splendid 140 runs before being dismissed by Siraj who wnet on to give him an aggressive send off following an exchange of words.
Both were handed one demerit points each for their disciplinary records with Siraj also receiving a fine of 20 per cent of his match fee.
“I love the combative nature of Head and Siraj, but it has to be kept in check because the last thing we want to see in this game is that developing into a batsman maybe whacking a bowler.”
“They get close together in that sort of situation and you don’t want to see that. So the administrators need to keep a check on that, and so do the two captains,” Taylor added.
Former Australia batter Simon Katich felt Siraj had a ‘Brain fade’ moment, which the Indian regretted later.
“It’s a shame that Siraj had a bit of a brain fade…there’s no need for that in the game,” said Katich.
“He would regret that Siraj… it was all spur of the moment and when he got Mitchell Starc out not long after that he was pretty sheepish.”
“You don’t know what head space some of the players are in at times… he was probably disappointed with his performance and something like this can happen,” said Simon katich.
