General
Updated on: Aug 04, 2025 10:02 pm IST
General Mohammed Siraj’s dramatic final wicket secured India’s Test series draw against England, showcasing his resilience and pivotal role throughout the matches.
Mumbai: It almost felt karmic when Mohammed Siraj brought the curtains down on the final Test at The Oval after an enthralling hour’s play on Day 5 with his knockout punch – a yorker fired in with a scrambled seam grip to uproot Gus Atkinson’s off-stump. As the fast bowler flaunted his imitation of Cristiano Ronaldo’s signature celebratory move, the Indian section among the capacity crowd erupted in delirium.
Cricket Gods are not that cruel after all. If that was the case, Siraj’s fielding lapse on Sunday that gave Harry Brook a reprieve on 19 and the rising England star smashed 111 would have remained the lasting image of the Test among the emotional Indian fans.
To those who don’t stop trying, life gives another chance. If it wasn’t so, Siraj would not have got a shot at redemption, having also despaired that he was the last wicket to fall in the Lord’s defeat that ended India’s batting resistance and gave England the series lead. To help overcome that low, Ravindra Jadeja had asked Siraj to think of his late father – he drove autorickshaw to make ends meet – and how hard he had worked to get here. Siraj looked heavenwards in thanks on completing the win.
Siraj was the heartbeat of the team through the gruelling five-Test series packed into six weeks. “A captain’s dream”, Shubman Gill called him. The final wicket came in Siraj’s 186th over of the series, 47th spell overall. The only fast bowler to play all the Tests and still remain standing. The body protested with aches and pains but the spirit was unbroken.
Gill was the Player-of-the-Series for his 754 runs, but India’s would not have levelled the series without Siraj’s relentless spells. If England felt India were still in the game with only 35 runs to defend and 4 wickets to get, it was because of Siraj.
“When I woke up this morning, I told myself I would change the game. I opened Google, downloaded a ‘believe’ image and put that as my phone wallpaper,” he said after the match.
Siraj had many prized scalps in the series with the wobble seam nipping into right-handers, but to put scoreboard pressure and under grey skies on Monday, he bowled outswingers, slightly wider. That’s how he got Jamie Smith, who could have sealed it, but never got the freedom to score. Siraj was so good in the morning that Gill felt, “they couldn’t touch bat on ball”. With so much swing on offer with the old ball, India didn’t take the second new ball. The batters would have known Siraj’s sucker delivery – the wobble ball that shapes in. Still, Jamie Overton and Atkinson were defeated.
Though India won by only six runs this time, they had pushed England into the final hour of the previous Tests. The real test was Sunday evening when Siraj had to lead a three-man pace attack knackered after the pasting by the 195-run stand between centurions Brook and Joe Root. Siraj soldiered on bowling long spells, conducted the crowd and helped set up wickets for Prasidh Krishna at the other end.
“My only plan was to bowl consistently at one spot and to move the ball in and out from there. I didn’t want to try too much because that could have released the pressure,” he said. It may sound a cliche, but wickets are often earned by repeating such ‘boring’ tactics.
In Day 4’s early exchanges, Siraj beat Ben Duckett five times in an over from over the wicket. Prasidh ramped up pressure by coming in from a different angle, pushing the aggressive left-hander further back to eventually get him with a fuller ball. When Siraj isn’t taking wickets – he took 9/190 in the match and 23 in the series – he’s setting up batters.
As seen during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy where Jasprit Bumrah was exceptional, Siraj unselfishly provided the support cast. “My job there was to work in partnership with Jassi bhai…how well he was bowling,” he told reporters. “But I always believe I can get wickets in any situation. Even if I am bowling the eighth over of a spell, I give 100 percent.”
In England, Siraj truly emerged from Bumrah’s shadows. Both the Tests India won came in Bumrah’s absence. And they couldn’t have done it without the man who never stopped believing.