Because of stump mic in modern-day cricket, the fans get to hear many on-field conversations between the cricketers, which they might not have been able to hear before and it adds another dimension to the entertainment that the on-field action provides, one such incident happened today at Wanderers between the Indian stand-in captain KL Rahul and the fast bowler Mohammed Siraj where Rahul asked Siraj, “are you hot”?
The question didn’t have a literal meaning to it and was actually related to the injury that Siraj had sustained yesterday during the first day’s play of the ongoing test match between India and South Africa. Siraj, while bowling the second last over of the day’s play, had stretched his hamstring a little bit and although he didn’t suffer a tear, he was still not at his 100% when he came back today.
Siraj was bowling at about 60-70% fitness and although he was still getting sharp movement off the deck, he was not able to bowl at full pace and hence, it was slightly easier for the batsmen to handle him off the backfoot. What was important for KL Rahul as a captain was to make sure that he was using Siraj when the bowler was warmed up in the field and not bring him into the spell when he wasn’t warmed up and ended up bowling a lot of looseners.
KL Rahul wanted to know if Mohammed Siraj was properly warmed up or not
While asking Siraj to come for a new spell, Rahul asked him, “Miyan aaja, theek hai, garam hai, chahiye toh 2 over le le aur” (Miyan, come on. Are you ok? Are you hot? If not, take a couple of more overs)
'Miyan aaja. Theek hai, garam hai? Ke chaiye 2 aur over. Bolde'
Love these stump mic pickings. Gives a BTS kind of a feel😂😂 pic.twitter.com/mdeS0LIdCo
Advertisement— Kanav Bali🏏 (@Concussion__Sub) January 4, 2022
Siraj, however, told the stand-in skipper that he was totally fine and was ready for a new spell. Because of Siraj’s injury, India struggled a little bit with the ball today because Siraj was the player who used to bowl long spells for India when nothing much was happening with the old ball. However, it wasn’t the case today, as Siraj bowled short spells only and that too at only 60-70% fitness.
India has still kept themselves in the game courtesy a five-wicket haul by Shardul Thakur, who provided regular breakthroughs to India with his skills to move the ball in the air and off the pitch. It was Shardul’s first ever fifer in test cricket and his best performance since Gabba, where he had set up India’s victory with a four-wicket haul in January last year.
