IND vs ENG: 109 overs and counting! Mohammed Siraj bends, but doesn’t break | Cricket News

Mohammed Siraj of India appeals throughout day 4 of the third Rothesay Test Match between England and India at Lord’s Cricket Ground on July 13, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

TimesofIndia.com in Manchester: Mohammed Siraj by no means stops. He is in your face, able to bowl the following over, and by no means shies away from placing his thoughts, physique, and soul on the road each time he takes the sphere for India. A trier who could not all the time succeed, but succeeds in all the time attempting. There is quite a lot of honesty with which he goes about his enterprise, and it’s evident proper from the preparations earlier than each sport. Whether that’s bowling, batting, or fielding, he retains the depth excessive in all his classes and has continued to shoulder many of the quick bowling workload within the final two years for India within the longest format.India’s spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has needed to miss video games because of workload and harm considerations. There has been fixed change in personnel because of health and mixture necessities, but Siraj has been the lone ranger who continues to roar, with eyes firmly locked on the opposition. There could possibly be criticism of his consistency or incapability to hit the rhythm from the go, but not a single finger can be raised in regards to the depth he brings to the sphere.And sustaining depth and enjoying the variety of video games he has performed — 24 out of India’s 27 Tests since 2023 — isn’t any joke, particularly when he has seen others round him break down, miss matches because of health, and get rotated for workload. Workload and rotation, the 2 fancy and trending key phrases in Indian cricket, do not apply to Hyderabad’s gully boy.

“We take for granted how lucky we are to have someone like that. I know he doesn’t always get the returns you might expect from a fast bowler, but in terms of heart, he’s like a lion. Every time he has the ball in hand, you get the sense that something is about to happen,” India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate mentioned in a media interplay. “He’s not someone who’s ever going to shy away from a workload, which makes it all the more important for us to manage it carefully,” he added.So far, the Indian assume tank, that includes totally different personnel, is but to “manage” Siraj as a result of most of the time, others round him should be managed. Akash Deep missed the ultimate Test of the Border-Gavaskar (*109*), Jasprit Bumrah could not bowl within the closing innings of the SCG Test and missed quite a lot of cricket after that, but Siraj stored going. He featured in all 5 Tests in Australia, and the one break he bought was when he was neglected for the Champions (*109*) marketing campaign in Dubai — once more, a break he by no means requested for.

Cut to 2025 in England, the script has adopted an identical theme as Bumrah won’t play greater than three Tests, Akash Deep limped off the sphere through the Lord’s Test, and Arshdeep Singh injured his bowling hand through the web session in Beckenham. Siraj? Well, he retains going. Even on a flat observe in Birmingham, the trier bent his again and returned with a six-wicket haul, incomes quite a lot of reward from bowling coach Morne Morkel.“Siraj is a guy that I’ve got a lot of respect for. He’s a guy that always will push his body to the limits. I think sometimes the guilty part of him is trying too hard, so for us, it’s about managing that sort of aggression and managing that intensity because he really bowls with his heart on his sleeve. I think sometimes those sorts of things can give you that inconsistency.

“In a match the place he is now the chief of the assault, he bought the wickets, but for me, by way of effort and power and with a sore physique, he is all the time executed and will put his hand up, and he desires to bowl that over. I do not assume typically we give him sufficient credit score for that,” said Morkel on his heroics at Edgbaston.Still two matches left, and Siraj has already sent down 109 overs in the three Tests for his 13 scalps. The pieces around him continue to move, change, and get managed, but Siraj keeps going. The arrangement has worked so far, but the management needs to now start looking after the pillar that is keeping the Indian pace attack steady, even in testing circumstances and conditions.