'Without Ashwin, Rohit told us we need to bowl long spells': Mohd Siraj

Mohammed Siraj was taking a welldeserved massage when young Yashasvi Jaiswal took on the England bowlers to race to 104 before retiring hurt with back spasmsldquoI was on the masseurrsquos table and did not watch Jaiswalrsquos knock I will watch the highlightsrdquo said Siraj in a lighter veinOn a serious note Siraj said ldquoHis confidence is very high He made a double hundred in Vizag He is totally focussed on what lies ahead and is carrying that confidence The message from the team is that he should continue the way he has been doingrdquoSiraj emerged Indiarsquos best bowler in Englandrsquos first innings taking 484 bowling a lengthy spell of 1111303 on either side of lunch on Saturday Further split he bowled 60180 before lunch and 511123 post lunch bringing the English innings to a premature closeAlso ReadWah JaiswalldquoWe didnrsquot bowl badly They were hitting shots off good balls as well In the morning when we got to know that Ash bhai Ashwin is not here more responsibility fell on us Rohit bhai told us that we will need to bowl long spells and I love bowling long spells For a fast bowler in Test match cricket one cannot set up a batsman in threefour overs We got success due to long spells We stopped runs and got wicketsrdquo Siraj said at the end of the dayrsquos playldquoSince we were one bowler short the remaining four bowlers had to bowl long spells If you bowl long spells you should not try much but be consistent with line and length They are not used to defending all six balls in an over If they have defended two they are going to attack the third I only want our bowlers to keep their plans simple and bowl dot ballsrdquo he addedSiraj was happy to talk about the yorker that dismissed Rehan Ahmed ldquoIt is a flat and slow wicket and we had to plan So we talked to the captain and planned that if we donrsquot get wickets we should make the batsmen think whether the bowler is bowling a bouncer or a slower one and confuse him I planned the yorker executed it well and got a wicket The momentum shifted towards us It is a proud feeling for a fast bowler to get the wicket with a yorkerrdquoWith India sitting pretty with a 322run lead Siraj felt ldquothe ball will keep a little low on the fourth day I cannot say anything a about this wicket The more you bowl at the stumps more likely you are to get success If you bowl wide you may leak runs and the team will come under pressurerdquo said the 29yearold