Siraj replicates Kohli’s bail-flipping mind game after fiery exchange with Labuschagne, gets booed; Aussie reverses it

It happened in the 33rd over of the first innings of the match when Siraj walked over at the striker’s end as he engaged himself in a fiery exchange with Labuschagne before flipping the bails, which led to the Indian getting booed again by the Gabba crowd. The incident at the Adelaide Oval during the pink ball Test, where Siraj was involved in two separate incidents with Australian batters, still remains fresh in the minds of the home crowd, who showed no mercy to the Indian all morning at the Gabba. However, Labuschagne reversed the bails after Siraj left, as the crowd enjoyed the moment.

Siraj’s tactic worked

The right-armer may not have got the better of Labuschagne in that over, but the mind game worked to perfection for India as the Aussie was dismissed in the next over. Nitish Reddy pitched up a fuller delivery outside off as Labuschagne went for a cover drive, but ended up getting a thick outside edge that went straight to Kohli at second slip.

The former India captain was elated at the dismissal and broke into a wild celebration with a finger-on-the-lips gesture towards the crowd.

It was the third wicket for India in the morning session on Day 2, with Jasprit Bumrah having struck twice in the opening half hour. He removed Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney in successive overs to send Australia 2 down for 38 in the 19th over of the innings.

Earlier on Saturday, the crowd witnessed only 13.2 overs of action owing to rain in Brisbane. A steady drizzle had stopped play briefly in the sixth over before a second spell of heavy showers prevented further action on day one. With the rain refusing to relent, play was finally called off at 4:15pm local time.