"The Mohammed Siraj I like was seen today" - Maninder Singh

Maninder Singh has lauded Mohammed Siraj for being at the top of his game on the third day of the second Test between India and Bangladesh in Mirpur on Saturday, December 24.

Siraj registered figures of 2/41 to help the visitors bowl out the Tigers for 231 in their second innings. However, KL Rahul and Co. were in a spot of bother heading into the fourth day after being reduced to 45/4 in pursuit of a 145-run fourth-innings target.

During a discussion on Sony Sports, Maninder was all praise for Siraj, saying:

"The Mohammed Siraj I like was seen today. I like his attitude a lot, which was seen today. That is why I say, he is a long-term prospect. He will keep picking up wickets like this for India for a long time if he is handled well."

The former Indian spinner went on to say that the Hyderabad pacer's immaculate lines bowled from the around-the-wicket angle particularly pleased him. He elaborated by saying:

"Mohammed Siraj bowled an exceptional line, especially when he came to bowl around the wicket. He kept on bowling on or around the off-stump, in the corridor of uncertainty, because of which he put the batters in trouble."

Siraj had Mominul Haque caught behind by Rishabh Pant with a delivery that straightened after pitching from an around-the-wicket angle. He then rattled Litton Das' stumps when the latter seemed to be taking the game away from India with his enterprising 73-run knock.

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"This will happen" - Maninder Singh on Mohammed Siraj failing to pick up a wicket in the first innings

Mohammed Siraj was not at his penetrative best in Bangladesh's first innings. [P/C: BCCI]

Maninder added that Siraj would have been amongst the wickets in the first innings as well if he had bowled as well as in the second essay, observing:

"The effort he put in today, if he had put the same effort in the first innings as well, he would have had one or two wickets in his name. But this will happen. You are playing international cricket."

The cricketer-turned-commentator reckons the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) seamer might have been mentally exhausted in the first innings and praised him for coming back strongly, explaining:

"Apart from the physical work, you keep on thinking, so you keep getting mentally tired. So probably that mental tiredness was seen somewhere or the other in the first innings but he realized it and came to the ground after doing his homework."

Siraj went wicketless in the nine overs he bowled in Bangladesh's first innings. Umesh Yadav (4/25) and Jaydev Unadkat (2/50), the other two seamers in India's playing XI, did the damage along with Ravichandran Ashwin (4/71).