India had begun their lap of honour around The Oval without their man of the moment.
Three-fourths of the ground had stood to applaud a famous win. But Mohammed Siraj was still finishing up with his interviews, beaming his smile through questions, when all he wanted was to be among his people.
When he finally broke free, he sprinted across the turf to catch up. And the first person he sought out wasn’t the captain, or the coach, or the cameras. It was Prasidh Krishna. They say fast bowlers often move in pairs. Siraj didn’t just join him. He leapt into his arms. It was a spontaneous, joyous hug at the end of a historic Test win. But what made it even more poignant was where it happened, that very part of the ground near the Vauxhall End where the two had shared a quieter, more private embrace just a day earlier.
Lunch had just been called on Day 4. And Siraj, instead of turning toward the dressing room, began walking in the other direction where Prasidh had been fielding. He could’ve waited for Prasidh to join him. When he got there, he put an arm around his partner and then patted his head. It was an apology. For the mis-step that had cost India Harry Brook’s wicket. And possibly the match. Possibly the series.
That was the story of the Anderson-Tendular Trophy, encapsulated in two Siraj vignettes. Because if this series that finished 2-2 was a roller-coaster, then Siraj was the guy in the front seat: wind in his face, hands off the rail, riding every twist, turn, plunge and peak. Even on Day 25, after 181 overs, he wasn’t done with the ride. He woke up at 6 a.m., two hours earlier than he had on any match day across the last six weeks. On his phone, he searched for an image of Cristiano Ronaldo, one with “Believe” emblazoned across it, and set it as his wallpaper.
All series long, Siraj had been bounding in. On hot days and flat tracks, through cramps and collapses. He was the only fast-bowling survivor across all five Tests, still running. Still believing. Even when England were only 35 runs away from clinching the series.
On the last day, he was running even before the first ball was bowled. India had just finished their morning huddle, one of those long, shoulder-gripping kinds meant to lock in the final hour of a long tour. As it broke, Siraj peeled away first, eager and restless. Only, in his urgency, he tripped over a BCCI staffer who was filming the moment. It would be the only misstep he’d make for the next 56 minutes.
It was plain obvious that Gill would have him continue from where he’d left off the previous evening under similar cloud cover. Siraj’s 42nd – and final – spell of the series had started before Tea on Day 4 and was now spilling into a third session. On the final morning, it resumed after England had knocked off eight more runs before he got the ball in hand. He began by curling a 77-over-old ball away from the right-handed Jamie Smith. He stuck to that channel once more. Then, on the third, Smith shuffled across to cover the angle, perhaps to get outside the line of the wobble-seam nip-backer, or to smother the swing. He managed neither. He nicked off.
The first wobble-seam ball actually went to Gus Atkinson, who somehow survived. But Jamie Overton didn’t. And when all the conventional wicket plans had gone out the window against Atkinson, who was farming the strike with an injured Chris Woakes and looking to hit big, Siraj switched to white-ball mode. His 1122nd delivery (including extras) of the series was a 143kph full ball that dipped late and snuck under Atkinson’s bat swing to knock out the off-stump and end the series.
