India pacer Mohammed Siraj has revealed that his late father's memory brought tears to his eyes while the national anthem was being played ahead of the third Test against Australia which began Thursday at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Siraj had lost his father on November 20, about a week after the Indian team landed in Australia and were in quarantine ahead of the limited-overs series. Former India opener Wasim Jaffer quoted legendary India cricketer MS Dhoni to describe the feelings of young pacer Mohammed Siraj who failed to control his emotions and tore up at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday. Jaffer shared a snapshot of the moment and took to Twitter to describe Siraj’s feelings. “Even if there’s little or no crowd to cheer you on, no better motivation than playing for India. As a legend once said ‘You don’t play for the crowd, you play for the country,’ tweeted Jaffer.
This is not the first time Siraj broken down while singing the national anthem. Similar scenes were experienced when Siraj made his T20I debut for India back in 2017 against New Zealand in Rajkot.The Hyderabad seamer had made his debut in the second Test match of this series and returned with five wickets in the match – two is the first innings and three in the second. The right-arm medium pacer has had to earn his Test cap after years of grind in domestic cricket and also for India A. India have made two changes to their playing XI for this Test. Rohit Sharma has come in place of Mayank Agarwal and Navdeep Saini was handed Test debut in place of the injured Umesh Yadav.
