Trust Ravichandran Ashwin to always come up with interesting answers to routine questions. In the post-match virtual press conference on Monday, the India off-spinner was asked about the fitness of pacer Mohammed Siraj, who had walked off the field towards the end of Day 1 of the second Test match at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Ashwin said he had asked India's media manager (Anand) whether he can talk about Siraj's injury before coming to the press conference. "So, I asked Anand before going into the press conference whether I can talk about it and he said I can," Ashwin said when asked to give an update about Siraj's injury.
The veteran off-spinner then went to add that the team management is hoping Siraj will recover and give his best in the remaining part of this second Test.
"The medical staff are assessing him overnight and obviously, I think, it's very immediate so initially what they do with these injuries is they just ice and see it for the next hour or two. I am hoping with the history that Siraj has, he'll definitely come out and give his best," Ashwin added.
Siraj pulled out just before his delivery stride in the sixth ball of the 17th over in South Africa's first innings. The India seamer was holding onto his hamstring and immediately called for the physios. After a brief discussion, Siraj decided to walk off the field. Shardul Thakur completed the over, which turned out to be the penultimate one of the day.
At stumps, South Africa were 35 for 1 with captain Dean Elgar (11) and Keegan Petersen (14) in the middle. They trail India - 202 all out - by 167 runs.
Asked about India's batting in the first innings, Ashwin replied: "(what is a) good total in South Africa has been tricky, especially in the first innings. It's always a good thing to win the toss and bat first and you want to post a good score in excess of maybe 260 or 270 which is around about score.
"South Africa always batted first (in the past) and got in excess of 250 and dominated games. Maybe we are a bit short. But I still think we've got with our entire bowling arsenal available tomorrow. Fingers crossed. We can definitely make something out of this total," he said.