Rohit Sharma ridicules Siraj’s bizarre proposal after umpires stop Day 3 play due to bad light: ‘He can’t bowl spin’

Bad light resulted in early stumps on Day 3 of the opening Test between India and Bangladesh in Chennai. With still close to 45 minutes left in the regulation time, the two on-field umpires halted the play on Saturday evening after dark clouds blew in from the beach side, resulting in poor light. Mohammed Siraj then made a bizarre proposal after India captain Rohit Sharma wanted to know if he could bowl spinners, but the idea was ridiculed, leaving fellow teammates and the umpires in splits.

It happened in the 38th over of the final innings of the match when Siraj was gearing up for this third delivery. Umpire Rod Tucker suddenly stopped the game and had his light meter out before his colleague Richard Kettleborough joined him. They weren’t convinced about continuing the game amid the bad light.

Rohit quickly suggested if he could use spinners. Meanwhile, Siraj was seen practicing spin bowling, leaving commentators curious if the India captain would at all take that risk. It wouldn’t be surprising given that earlier this month, England fast bowler Chris Woakes was forced by the umpires to bowl spin mid-over due to bat light during the Oval Test match against Sri Lanka.

Siraj seemed so confident that he even made the suggestion to Rohit while twirling the ball. But when the umpires approached Rohit, he ridiculed the idea saying, “He can’t bowl spin,” leaving the players and the match officials laughing.

Rishabh Pant Pant, Shubman Gill leave India on verge of victory

It was an emotional day for both Pant and Gill, albeit in contrasting fashion, given their journey over the last one year. But the put behind their struggles and anxiety to notch up their respective tons to leave India on the verge of a huge win.

Gill (119 not out) and Pant (109) stitched a valiant 167-run stand for the fourth wicket that helped India declare their second innings at 287 for 4 for an overall lead of 514. Bangladesh did show some resilience in their second innings to reach 158 for four when play was called off at 4.25 pm due to bad light, but the visitors, who whitewashed Pakistan 2-0 in the own backyard last month, still need a whopping 357 runs for the result to be in their favour. Najmul Hossain Shanto (51) and Shakib Al-Hasan (5) were manning the crease for Bangladesh as India remained in command after Ravichandran Ashwin, who smashed a century in the opening innings of the match, picked up three wickets for 63 runs.