New Delhi: Team India head coach Ravi Shastri on Friday lauded Mohammed Siraj for his contribution to India's 2-1 Test series victory over Australia despite losing his father in the middle of the tour.
Taking to Twitter, Shastri wrote: "Find of the tour for shoring up the bowling attack the way he did - Mohd Siraj. He fought through personal loss, racial remarks and channelised them to find a home in the team huddle."
Siraj lost his father just before the start of the series in Australia. But the pacer decided to stay back and fulfil his father's dream of seeing him play red-ball cricket. Also, during the third Test in Sydney, Siraj along with Jasprit Bumrah had to face racial slurs from the Australian crowd.
Commenting on the Sydney episode, Siraj on Thursday said: "Australian crowd started abusing me, it made me mentally strong. Not letting it hamper my performance was my prime concern. My job was to inform that I was being abused, I told the entire matter to captain (Ajinkya) Rahane. Umpires told us that you can walk off the field and leave the game but Ajju bhai told the umpire that we won't leave, we respect the game."