Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood has compared his former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) teammate Mohammed Siraj to Virat Kohli after Indian pacer’s on-field altercation with Travis Head during the pink-ball Test in Adelaide.
Notably, Siraj was involved in two incidents where his temper flared during the pink-ball Test that India lost by 10 wickets. His temper has become a topic of discussion among experts and fans before the third Test.
The 30-year-old India pacer first threw the ball wide off the stumps near Marnus Labuschagne in Australia’s first innings after the Aussie batter pulled away from his stance, forcing the bowler to halt his run-up. The incident happened when a man holding a tower of beer cups walked into Labuschagne’s line of sight.
The next day, Siraj gave a fiery send-off to Head after cleaning him up with a low full toss, drawing the ire of the Adelaide crowd which booed him.
While speaking to the media on Monday, Josh Hazlewood called Siraj a “good character”, who fires up the crowd and is passionate about the game like Indian superstar Virat Kohli.
“He’s just a good character and it’s good to see sometimes. I really enjoyed my time at RCB with Siraj. He’s probably the leader of the attack there, to a degree. He’s another one who’s a bit like Virat, very passionate, goes with the flow of the game, gets the crowd up,” said Hazlewood
“He has bowled serious spells in the IPL in the last few years,” he added.
Hazlewood had dismissed Kohli for 5 in the first innings in the opening Test at Perth. It was the fourth time the Australian pacer dismissed Kohli in red-ball cricket.
Talking about his contest with Kohli, the 33-year-old Aussie pacer said, “It just comes down to who executes well on the day, whether he leaves you well until the ball gets soft or someone else comes on the ball and doesn’t ball quite well enough.”
“There’s a lot of match-ups like that throughout international cricket. You know, we’ve played with each other so much. If you’ve been around for 10 years, you pretty much know each other inside out,” he added.
Australia levelled the five match series 1-1 after a thumping 10-wicket win over India in the second Test in Adelaide. The two sides now head to Brisbane for the third match, starting December 14.
