The ball that Mohammed Siraj bowled to Gus Atkinson to rattle his stumps was Siraj’s fifth fastest delivery of the series, and this came after five Tests in which he bowled a whopping 185.2 overs. He ended up as the leading wicket-taker with 23 wickets in the series. He was the last bowler remaining from both sides to play all the games at the end alongside Chris Woakes. Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, appreciative of Siraj’s workload, said that he debunked the “business of workload.”
“There’s always the saying that the bowlers win your matches, but the fact of the matter is that you’ve also got to score the runs. So because India didn’t score the runs, they lost those two matches. So yes, I think Siraj bowled his heart out, and he debunked forever this business of workload,” he said, speaking to India Today.
“I hope that the word ‘workload’ goes out of the Indian Cricket dictionary. I’ve been saying that for a long time. For five Test matches nonstop, he bowled 6-over, 7-over, 8-over spells because the captain wanted it, and the country expected of him. And I think that is the one thing that we all should keep in mind that this workload is only a mental thing, not so much a physical thing,” Gavaskar added.
“If you are going to succumb to people who are talking about workload, then you are never going to have your best players on the field. You’ve got to get them to a situation where you say, ‘Hello, you are playing for your country, and when you are playing for your country, you got to forget the aches and pains in your muscles. That is what you mean on the border. Do you think the jawans complain about the cold, or what is the situation? They are there to give their lives for the country. Give your very best for the country. Don’t worry about accident pains. What did Rishabh Pant show you? He came out bat with a fracture. That is the kind of thing you want to expect from your team,” Gavaskar further said.
