Siraj-Head rivalry loses steam as cooler heads prevail; Rohit Sharma vows batsmen will dig heels in, training for Brisbane | Cricket News

Within five balls on the third day at Adelaide Oval, any interest in the game had evaporated, and the attention of the crowd turned to the main event of the day: Mohammed Siraj vs Australians. When Rishabh Pant edged Mitch Starc’s fifth delivery of the morning, any hope of having a long day was extinguished. In the end, India just about managed to avoid an innings-defeat, courtesy Nitish Reddy. And Australia rattled off the required 19 runs in 3.2 overs to level the series. The third Test at Brisbane starts on Saturday, December 14.
Once Pant departed as the sixth wicket to fall, the wait ensued for tailend tip Siraj to emerge. Every Australia-India series has a hero and a villain, and this one seemed to have found their two faces, though the most unlikely ones. So much so that the end of the game, Head had already given up, telling ABC radio that “I’m sweet, and I think he’s the same, and we move on.” It will now probably depend on the Brisbane crowd to try to take this “rivalry” forward booing, if the players themselves don’t act on it.
But for a short while there was some buzz in the air. Siraj ran on to the park to bat as No 11, and was huddled with Jasprit Bumrah. The drinks break was on. The groundstaff were busy dusting up the landing areas of the bowlers, while the Australians stood behind the striker’s stumps, sipping water. The crowd booed. It was too early in the day to have had alcohol coursing through their system as was the case on Saturday night when the episode happened. They did try, though, to keep themselves entertained with booing.
Australia’s Mitchell Starc, left, celebrates the dismissal of India’s Rishabh Pant, right, during the day three of the second cricket test match between Australia and India at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Els)
Almost immediately, the two main actors of the show punctured the spicy balloon. Siraj had just stabbed at a bouncer – Pat Cummins hadn’t reserved that treatment solely for him, but that was his modus operandi in the morning, bouncing at the lower order to take wickets. The ball flew to the right of the diving wicketkeeper Alex Carey who clanged it. Steve Smith, at first slip, picked up the ball and threw it towards Head, at short-leg. Just then, Siraj, who hadn’t noticed the throw, was walking in that direction when Head put out his left hand to alert him to stop and collected the throw. The two even had a chat. From then on, Siraj kept swaying and walking towards Head.
The crowd too was slowly losing interest in booing, at least not doing it as relentlessly, when the tamasha ended. With one fun tw, though. Siraj miscued a slog and Head ran to get under the swirler to pouch it. The crowd loved that closure – and cheers erupted. Bumrah would add one further touch to the proceedings, patting Siraj’s back and helmet, and asking him to walk off the park first.
That was the day’s only entertainment as the 19-run chase was over in a blink. There was one final act left that could have led to more drama over the episode, but it didn’t eventuate at the two press conferences of the captains Rohit Sharma and Cummins.
Rohit came first, doused all potential fire over the Siraj-Head incident. He praised both – Siraj for his bowling, Head for his batting and said such incidents happen in the heat of the moment “between two competitive teams”. And that there is nothing much to it. “When India and Australia play, these things happen always. And these are now just part of the game … there is a thin line between getting aggressive and getting too aggressive and crossing that line. Obviously, as a captain, it is also my responsibility to make sure that we don’t cross the line. But yeah, a word or two here and there, I don’t think makes a huge difference.” Rohit said.
Cummins too played a similar tune. It could have got more interesting had it not been the captains doing the media interactions. Maybe. Asked if he counsels his players how to handle the media and what to tell the world after such “heated” incidents, Cummins perhaps took it as a question directed about Head, the one who did the press conference on Saturday. “Travis is the vice captain. He is a big boy, he can talk for himself.”
When another questioner persed with the Siraj-Head angle, Cummins leaned forward, smiled a little and said, “Enough has been said about it.” Time to move on, then, for both teams to the Gabba with the series level.

Even as Cummins was addressing the media, some Indian batsmen trooped to the nets to have a knock. Rohit had earlier talked about the keenness in the group to work out their own plans to face the moving ball. “The team is quite keen to make the difference and whatever challenges are there and the conditions are tough, we want to battle it out there, stay out there and grind it out. That’s what Jaiswal and KL did to get that 200 run partnership (in Perth). It was not just trying and swinging the bat. KL especially played close to 200 balls to get his 70 and Jaiswal as well knowing his aggressive nature, how he wants to bat, he batted 300 balls to get those 150 runs.
“We’ve been in the place where it has been challenging, we’ve been bowled out but we have left it behind. That’s what we did in Perth when we just left the baggage of the first innings.”
India would like to revisit Perth’s second innings effort, and forget Adelaide. Australia would like to forget Perth and revisit Adelaide’s effort for the third Test. Some days to remember, some days to forget.