Mohammed Siraj took the perfect revenge after being hit for consecutive boundaries by West Indies opener Shai Hope in the first ODI at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. The right-arm seamer, who bowled a maiden in the first over of the match, was hit for two cracking fours through the off-side by Hope in the second and third delivery of his next over but Siraj, instead of being demoralised, got the ball to nip back from outside the off stump in the next delivery and induced an error from Hope. The right-hander once again went for a drive but this time, the movement off the pitch brought about his downfall. As Hope is often guilty of leaving a gap between his bat and pad, the ball took the inside half of his bat and cannoned into the stumps. India got their first wicket after opting to bowl first as Hope went back for 8.
Siraj celebrated the wicket like legendary footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, which once again caught the attention of social media users.
Watch: Mohammed Siraj gets Shai Hope after being hit for consecutive fours
Siraj is back and India gets the powerplay wicket in ODI.
Siuuuuuu Celebration ???? pic.twitter.com/ERPjdjYVP4
— . (@_VkSk) February 6, 2022
.@mdsirajofficial ????????????
Evergreen Celebration ❤️#INDvWI pic.twitter.com/dY3bwjxFvg— Jayanth VLK???? (@vlkjayanth_1718) February 6, 2022
After Siraj’s early wicket, the Indian spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar – who is making a comeback to the XI – dished a double-wicket over each to leave West Indies reeling.
In the absence of regular seamers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami – both of them rested – India have fielded a different new-ball attack in the series opener against West Indies. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna were selected as the frontline seamers while Shardul Thakur got the nod ahead of Deepak Chahar as the seam-bowling all-round option.
There were quite a few changes in India’s batting unit too but most of them were forced as Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad tested positive for COVID-19 a few days before the series opener.
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Ishan Kishan was picked as an opener while Deepak Hooda, who also bowls off-spin, was given his maiden ODI cap.
The Indian players sported black armbands to honour legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar who died on Sunday morning at the age of 92.
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