'He had tears rolling...': Tim Paine recalls Md Siraj's racism incident during India-Australia Sydney Test

The India-Australia four-match Test series, in 2020/21, wasintensely fought. After losing the series opener in Adelaide, by eight wickets, the Indian team was without regular captain Virat Kohli for the remainder of the series in Australia.

With Ajinkya Rahane leading the side, there were a host of youngsters in the squad who battled several odds -- racial slur, sledging and injuries -- to triumph 2-1 and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under. In the recently-released docudrama series on India's emphatic series win in Australia, the then Aussie skipper Tim Paine recalled the racism incident that affected Siraj in the drawn third and penultimateSydney Test.

During the match, Siraj was subjected to racial abuse by some section of the Aussie fans. When it happened again, he reported the matter to his stand-in captain Rahane as the match was halted for a bit, before the officials asked the particular section of the fans to vacate the stands. Recalling the infamous episode, Paint said on thedocumentaryBandon mein tha dum,"I still remember walking up to Siraj, he actually had tears in his eyes and tears rolling down his cheeks. So it obviously really affected him and cut him really deep. This is a kid, who has just gone through the death of his father. And then to have that I just thought was uncalled for.

"Traditionally in Australia we have been pretty good at how we treat our visiting cricketing teams. So to see it happen again was disappointing," Paine added.

Despite the incident, Siraj continued to shine for India with the ball in hand. As a result, he ended with 13 wickets -- most by an Indian in the series -- and also claimed his maiden five-fer in the final Test to be one of India's main heroes in their historic series win.