Under immense criticism of his temperament, former coach Ravi Shastri has backed the Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj. Siraj came under the controversy of verbal spat with Australian batter Travis Head during the 2nd Test held in Adelaide. Siraj had come up through Shastri’s training; and the latter now remarked that he would still like to see a fire burning among his fast bowlers. Of course, it is a Shastri, along with then-captain Virat Kohli, behind the aggressive approach for Team India, who would add that the philosophy should be ‘give it back as good as you get’.
During the second Test, Travis Head had slammed Siraj and the rest of the Indian bowling en route to a game-changing 140. And when he finally got out, what followed was a verbal spat between the two, with Siraj dishing out a send-off.
The ICC fined the pacer 20 percent match fees, and both players got one demerit point each.
But, Shastri has come out in favour of Siraj.
“I wouldn’t expect any less from a fast bowler after being hit for a six. Siraj let off some steam. That’s fast bowler temperament. It’s supposed to be like that. When I was playing, my philosophy was to give it back as good as you get. And it’s exactly what I would tell my players when I was coaching India in Australia. Do not hold back one bit”, Shastri wrote in his column for CODE Sports.
“Never take a backward step.” Wisely, it became the philosophy of the team and everyone from Virat Kohli to Rishabh Pant and every member of the squad was there to give it back to the Aussies,” said Shastri.
He also assured that Siraj and Head were “mature individuals” who wouldn’t allow the moment to become a controversy, said Shastri.
