Mohammed Siraj opens up about his ‘finger on lips’ celebration, says ' it's for haters'

Mohammed Siraj has had a phenomenal start to his Test career. After making a sizzling debut in Australia, the pacer hasn’t looked back. In the ongoing second Test at Lords, Siraj’s 4-fer helped India bundle out England for 391. Apart from his bowling, Siraj's celebration has gained a lot of limelight. Every time the pacer gets a wicket, he sends off the batsman with his finger on lips, as if he is asking someone to shut up, for which he has been criticised as well. The speedster opened up on the celebration and said it was for the haters who used a say a lot of bad stuff about him.

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“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.

Siraj was the pick of Indian bowlers and accounted for the wickets of Dominic Sibley, Haseeb Hameed, Jonny Bairstow, and Ollie Robinson. He was impeccable with his line and lengths and troubled every English batter. He was so close to getting a five-wicket haul and get his name etched on the honours board, but a close shave for Joe Root, thanks to the ‘umpire's call’, denied him the same. Siraj further revealed India’s strategy against the English batsmen.

“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

The wicket was not offering much help to the bowlers and Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root were looking at complete ease. India then had a change in plan after lunch and bowled a barrage of short balls to Jonny Bairstow. The strategy worked wonders as Bairstow was caught at slips 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 added.