Mohammed Siraj opens up on his 'finger on lips' celebration

Mohammed Siraj was on fire in England’s first inning at Lords and picked up a four-wicket haul, helping India bundle out the hosts for 391. Siraj accounted for the wickets of Dominic Sibley, Haseeb Hameed, Jonny Bairstow, and Ollie Robinson. After every dismissal, Siraj was seen giving a weird send off to the batsman by putting his finger on his lips, as if he is asking someone to shut up. The celebration was not appreciated by several experts who felt it was unnecessary for Siraj to do such stuff. The pacer opened up on his celebration and revealed it was for the haters who used to say bad things about him.

“The celebration style is for haters (critics), as they used to say a lot of things about me, that I cannot do this thing…So I thought of answering them with my ball.” Siraj said as reported by Times Now News.

Getting his name on the Lords honours board is a dream for any player and Siraj was mighty close to achieving the feat. Eyeing for his fifth wicket, Siraj got Root trapped in front but couldn’t get the result in his favour. Kohli went for the review but Root escaped a narrow shave, thanks to the Umpire’s call. Siraj further revealed India’s bowling plan to the England batters.

“Fast bowlers play an important role in England. We were bowling at consistent lengths. Our plan was to bowl consistently at one length. I was looking to bowl at one spot consistently even during my Ranji Trophy days. My simple plan was to not try much hit at one spot consistently,” he added

Having failed to pick up a wicket before lunch, India switched their strategy and bowled a barrage of short balls to Jonny Bairstow, who fell in the trap and was dismissed in an attempt to pull the ball. “The wicket wasn’t helping that much so we planned to use a bouncer as after the next eight overs, a new ball would have been taken. So the plan was to bowl short balls,” Siraj further added.