India pacer Mohammed Siraj was not a happy chappy during Day 3 of the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Mullanpur on Monday, and he let his feelings known to the on-field batters Rahmat Shah and Sharafuddin Ashraf. It all happened when the latter was unable to run between the wickets due to an injury. This even led to the settled batter, Shah, not being able to do anything, and the passage of play saw both batters just blocking the balls out, with no rotation of strike and no boundaries being hit.
After seeing the dull passage of play, Siraj got a bit “rattled” and let his displeasure be known to Rahmat. After the right-hander defended the ball towards him, the speedster charged towards Rahmat and had a word or two to say.
Siraj did a lot of finger-pointing, and Rahmat could not do anything but smile towards the pacer. Former England spinner Graeme Swann, who was on air at the time, sympathised with the pacer.
“Siraj is asking him that. He’s asking, ‘Mate, what are you doing?’ What’s going on in this game? You are just blocking it now. 250 overs are left. Siraj is getting rattled,” Swann said on air.
“Siraj saying, ‘It’s ridiculous’. Get him off the field. Gets somebody in who’s actually going to play cricket. I have got a lot of sympathy for Siraj here,” he added.
The broadcast cameras also captured the Afghanistan support staff laughing in the dressing room, which added a lot more to the drama.
“Seeing a lot of amusement in the Afghanistan box,” said Swann.
Former India spinner Murali Kartik also agreed with Swann as he too found it difficult to understand whatever the Afghanistan batters were trying to do.
Manav Suthar shines on debut
Debutant Manav Suthar had a dream maiden Test for India, picking up a five-wicket haul. The left-arm spinner finished with six wickets as India bundled out Afghanistan for 152, gaining a lead of 412 runs. Moreover, the hosts then decided to enforce the follow-on.
Apart from Suthar, Prasidh Krishna got on the wicket-taking board, scalping three wickets. Washington Sundar was the other bowler to take one wicket as he scalped the last Afghanistan batter. Rahmat was the pick of the Afghanistan batters, scoring 60.
Earlier, India captain Shubman Gill won the toss and opted to bat. The hosts posted 564/8 before declaring. Both Gill and KL Rahul scored centuries while Sai Sudharsan and Rishabh Pant scored 81 each.