Legendary India cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was all praise for Mohammed Siraj following the pacer's heroic 6-wicket-haul against England during the third day of Edgbaston Test. In Jasprit Bumrah's absence, it was Siraj who took the responsibility of racking up wickets as India's frontline pacer.
After dismissing England opener Zak Crawley on Day 2, the 31-year-old got the big wickets of both Joe Root and Ben Stokes on consecutive deliveries on the third day. He then also got rid of England's tailenders, sending the likes of Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue and Shoaib Bashir back to the dugout. Siraj reamined consistent throughout the day with his deliveries and his accuracy also left Tendulkar impressed.
Siraj bowled a fiery spell against England
Thus, the former India batter took to social media to heap praise on Siraj's consistency, adding that the seamer thoroughly deserved to pick up the six scalps that he got.
"The biggest change I’ve noticed in Siraj has been his accuracy and consistency in landing the ball in the right areas. His persistence has been rewarded with 6 wickets. Very ably supported by Akash Deep as well. Well done!" Tendulkar wrote on X.
Coming to the match, after restricting England to 84/5 at one stage, the Indian bowlers were in total control and it looked as if the Men in Blue may even enforce a follow-on against the hosts. However, the duo of Harry Brook and Jamie Smith had other ideas. Both the batters formed a massive stand and smashed the opposing bowlers all around the stadium. Smith in particular was absolutely ruthless and maintained a strike-rate of over 100 as he reached his ton after facing just 80 deliveries.
On the other hand, Brook also didn't stay far behind and reached his hundred as the second session of the third day commenced. But the duo didn't just stop there and continued hitting boundaries for fun. After forming a record-breaking partnership of 303 runs, it was Akash Deep who finally got the much-needed breakthrough for India and dismissed Harry Brook for 158 runs.
The rest of the England batters weren't able to pose much of a challenge for the Indian bowlers, but thanks to Brook and Smith, the hosts managed to post a big total of 407 on the board before getting bowled out. The latter remained unbeaten on 184, hitting 21 boundaries and four maximums in his fiery knock.
In reply, Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul provided a good start to the team with a 51-run stand, however the former would soon lose his wicket for 22 runs. The Men in Blue wrapped up Day 3 on 64/1, leading by a massive margin of 244 runs with Rahul batting on 28 and Karun Nair unbeaten on 7. It will be interesting to see which team comes out on top on the fourth day of the already very eventful Edgbaston Test.