Mohammed Siraj looked his vintage self after a long time in red-ball cricket for India when he knocked over Australia's opener, Usman Khawaja for 21 on day four of the ongoing Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Siraj bowled a full delivery angling across to Khawaja in the 19th over and got it to straighten a bit and that was good enough for the Australian opening batter.
Khawaja, 38, played the angle of the delivery and got outdone as the ball straightened and made its way through the gap between bat and pad to rattle the stumps. The wicket lifted the spirits of the India pacer and he immediately silenced the animated crowd at the "G".
Mohammed Siraj knocks over Usman Khawaja:
Virat Kohli joined Siraj in his celebration and was pumped up by the much-needed breakthrough. Notably, Khawaja was given a reprieve by Yashasvi Jaiswal when he was batting on just 2. The chance was created by Jasprit Bumrah, who got Khawaja to flick a delivery that was drifting down the leg side. The ball took the full face off Khawaja's bat and went straight to Jaiswal, who was stationed at leg gully, exactly for an opportunity like that. Jaiswal got low to accept the chance but shelled it as the ball burst through his hands.
Australia Playing XI: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
Bench: Beau Webster, Sean Abbott, Josh Inglis, Jhye Richardson
Support Staff: Andrew McDonald, Andre Borovec, Daniel Vettori, Michael Di Venuto, Clint McKay
India Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep
Bench: Shubman Gill, Tanush Kotian, Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana
Support Staff: Gautam Gambhir, Abhishek Nayar, Ryan ten Doeschate, T Dilip, Morne Morkel
