‘Not just the bowling…’: Indian coach clears air around Mohammed Siraj and his workload

“When Booms (Jasprit Bumrah) is not there you need to set the tone as a new ball bowler or the first change bowler or a guy who’s played. You know, more than 30, 40 Tests, so I think he just enjoys that opportunity when it’s given to him and he said it yesterday, I think in an interview, he just loves playing for India and putting the shirt on and performing,” Morkel said.

Morne Morkel revealed that the team management had a “conversation” with Mohammed Siraj in order to find out about his mindset ahead of the fifth Test, to which the pacer said that he wanted to win for the team.

“Before the start of the Test, there was conversation with him just to check in how he was feeling mentally and how he was feeling physically because of the amount of overs but he was the first guy to say, ‘listen, I want to play this Test match, I want to win it for the team, so not just the bowling front but it’s the attitude for me that is great. You’ve got a guy with an attitude like that and he’s willing to run all day, I’m not surprised, that’s why he’s got the numbers,” said Morkel.