‘He’s taken such a giant step in his personal career’ – Rohit Sharma lauds Mohammed Siraj for latter’s brilliant Trinidad show

Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Siraj. (Pic source: RANDY BROOKS/AFP)

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma praised pacer Mohammed Siraj for his performance in the second Test against the West Indies. Siraj picked up a five-wicket haul for the visitors in the first inning as the two Test match series against the West Indies ended with a 1-0 result for the Indian side because the last game ended got washed off.

Interestingly, Siraj was awarded Player of the Match for his performance; this was his second five-wicket haul in Test matches. The 29-year-old pacer helped the Indian side clear the lower-order batters as he dismissed the last five batters of the Caribbean lineup. The home side was once on 208/5 but the right-arm pacer’s spell resulted in the Indies side being bowled out for 255.

Mohammad Siraj led the attack in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami as well: Rohit Sharma

“Siraj, over the years now, I’ve been watching him closely from 2-3 years. He is taken such a giant step in his personal career, how he has led the attack in the absence of Bumrah and Shami as well. I don’t anyone to lead the attack. I want everyone to be leading the attack whenever they have ball in hand. That is the kind of mindset you want to have,” Rohit was quoted as saying by Crex.

“You don’t want to depend on one or two individuals. You want the entire pace battery to take the responsibility to get the job done for the team and that is exactly the guys have done in the past few years. We have played a really good Test cricket in the recent past and I hope we continue to do that. It’s all about these guys having that confidence and move forward which you can see in the performance,” he further added.

In the end, Rohit also praised the performances of star Indian batter Virat Kohli, who scored his 29th Test hundred in the first innings, and Ishan Kishan, who scored a quickfire 52 off 34 as the Indians declared their innings on 181/2 in the second innings. Earlier in the game, West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite won the toss and elected to field first.

The Indian team posted 438 runs batting first, with the support of Kohli’s 121. In reply, the West Indies were bowled out for 255 runs, while in their second innings, they were chasing the target of 365 runs, but rain washed away Day 5 of the game.

Now that the series is moving towards a limited-overs contest, the Rohit Sharma-led side will be playing three ODIs starting on Thursday, July 27 at Bridgetown.