Mohammed Siraj led India’s comeback on day three with the ball in Rajkot. He took 4/84 with the ball as England were bowled out for 319 after finishing the second day strongly at 207/2.

Jasprit Bumrah took the wicket of Joe Root to start England’s batting collapse on Day 3. Siraj then came into action with consecutive wickets of Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes. The Indian pacer then cleaned up Rehan Ahmed and James Anderson as England were bowled out for 319, allowing India to take a 126-run lead.

Yashasvi Jaiswal’s unbeaten and then assured India finished the second day in dominant fashion. The Men in Blue finished day 3 at 196/2 in the second innings. Rohit Sharma (19) added a 30-run stand for the opening wicket, after which it was the 155-run stand of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill (65* off 120) that returned the initiative in India’s favour.

Unfortunately, the left-hander had a back spasm at the end of the day, which is why he was retired injured. England managed to dismiss Rajat Patidar for a duck, but it was India who finished the day with a strong lead of 322 runs at stumps on Day 3.

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Mohammed Siraj spoke about his bowling plans in the post-match interaction with the announcers. He spoke about how India waited patiently for England to make mistakes with the bat, which they did in their quest to score quick runs. There was a lot of talk about Joe Root’s dismissal.

The Yorker was an option to take ground: Mohammed Siraj

“We only had four players and we had a responsibility. We knew they would attack, so we talked about sticking together knowing they would make a mistake. We didn’t plan much, we were waiting for them to make a mistake. I knew the yorker would be a good option to take wickets. The important role of a bowler is to bowl six-pointers, we know they are not used to playing six-pointers in a row,” Siraj said.

He also talked about what he did in the break between the second and third tests. Mohammed Siraj was rested in the second Test after he was replaced by Mukesh Kumar, who failed to make an impact in Vizag.

“I enjoyed it with my family, then we had training. I did my training and then even watched the test match at home, I enjoyed watching Bumrah bowling at York. (Thanks DK bhai and says “see you at RCB” laughing),” Siraj concluded by saying.

Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja also played a key role with the ball. Kuldeep, who was undone by Ben Duckett on Day 2, finished with figures of 2/77, dismissing Jonny Bairstow and Ben Duckett. The Chinese bowler managed to fool the England batsmen with the guile of him. Jadeja also managed to take a couple of wickets after coming into the bowl near the end of the first session.

The senior spinner finished with 2/51 dismissing Ben Stokes and Tom Hartley. He was expected to play a key role after Ravichandran Ashwin’s forced retirement from the third Test and that is precisely what he did.

Earlier in the day, India fielded 10 men without their veteran spinner Ashwin, who had to opt out of the ongoing Rajkot Test due to a family emergency. He took the wicket of Zak Crawley on Day 2, which was his 500th wicket in Test matches.

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