The Indian speedster, Mohammed Siraj felt satisfied after the perfect execution of his plans when dismissed by the English skipper, Joe Root on the opening day of the fourth and final Test on Thursday. Root was trapped before the wicket by Siraj, who bowled a beautiful inswinger that would have hit the middle and leg stump.

Talking about the dismissal during the post-day press conference, Mohammed Siraj said, “I wanted to set Root up bowling away going deliveries. And then I thought during the start of a new over, I should bring one back in. I could execute it as I had planned and it gave me great satisfaction. Mazaa aa gaya (It was fun).”

Similarly, Siraj had done his homework on Jonny Bairstow’s apparent weakness while facing the in-coming deliveries. The in-cutter that dismissed Bairstow was bowled at more than 146 kmph.

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Explaining the dismissal, Siraj said, “Bairstow, I wasn’t bowling him at a lot of pace at the start. …but whatever footages I have seen of him, he gets out to in-swinging deliveries. So I wanted to bowl in one area and bring it back consistently and it worked.”

His skipper Virat Kohli on the day mostly used him in short spells and the plan was to bowl in an area consistently in order to create pressure. Siraj said there wasn’t much reverse swing on offer and Kohli had made it clear that fast bowlers would bowl from one end.

The pace elaborated, “It was only normal swing at play. So we knew that fast bowlers will bowl from one end.”

However, Siraj is happy that whether it was Ajinkya Rahane in Australia or Kohli over here, he has consistently received encouragement and backing.

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Talking about the support from the captains, Mohammed Siraj said, “As a player, captain’s backing is very important. If the captain backs a player, you get a lot of boost and can do an extraordinary thing. This is a fantastic batting wicket.”