WHEN GOING GETS TOUGH, DIAL SIRAJ

UNDER BIG PRESSURE TO DELIVER IN THE ABSENCE OF BUMRAH, PACER FROM HYDERABAD DISPLAYS GRIT OF CHAMPION TO STEP UP & SHOW HIS WORTH

- GOMESH S @Chennai

LITTLE into the third session on Day Three, Indian pacers had finally broken the Jamie Smith-Harry Brook partnership. It happened as soon as the second new ball came into play and, England, in quick time, were nine down with Mohammed Siraj taking a fifer—his first since the Cape Town Test in early 2024.

Immediately after he took the wicket of Josh Tongue—his fifth of the innings—Siraj welcomed Shoaib Bashir with a brutal bouncer that hit the England spinner on the helmet. Just as Bashir was going through the concussion protocol, Siraj turned to Akash Deep, his fellow pacer, who had four wickets next to his name and was on the verge of his first Test fifer. "Unko meine ye bhi bhola ki 'char ball bacha hai, mein bahar dalun kya? (I even asked him 'four balls left, should I bowl wide, defensive lines?)," he would ask Akash Deep (as revealed in the video shared by BCCI) so that the Bengal pacer could get his name also on the honours board. Akash Deep would politely decline and Siraj captured his sixth and England's last wicket on the very next delivery. As he led the team off the field, with the ball in his hand, Siraj had recorded his second-best Test figures—6/70 in 19.3 overs. That conversation and his performance on Friday, in many ways, summed up Siraj the leader and the person.