Pacer Mohammed has been India’s tireless workhorse for a lot longer than this series, and India will again look to him to provide Jasprit Bumrah the support he needs to bring the side back on level terms at the fourth Test which begins in Manchester on Wednesday
Pacer Mohammed Siraj during India’s practice session at Old Trafford, Manchester, on Monday. Pic/Getty Images
There is little Mohammed Siraj does which isn’t whole-hearted. Whether with a brand-new cherry or an aged, soft ball that offers him little joy, the Hyderabadi seldom stops trying. With the bat, his skills might be limited, but he tries to compensate for it with the largeness of his heart, though not always with great success.
Near-miracle at Lord’s
Last week at Lord’s, Siraj batted more than an hour in a desperate bid to help Ravindra Jadeja pull off a miracle before being dismissed in unfortunate fashion, a dead defensive stroke failing to prevent a ball from Shoaib Bashir from rolling back and behind him on to the leg-stump to seal England’s 22-run victory. It took Siraj a long time to recover from that. “I was confident I wouldn’t get out unless I played a bad shot,” he said on Monday afternoon. But once the realisation dawned that even though India were 1-2 down, there still were two matches to play, he regathered focus and was at it again during India’s first full training session leading up to the fourth Test, starting on Wednesday.
Siraj has been India’s tireless workhorse for a lot longer than this series, and India will again look to him to provide Jasprit Bumrah the support he needs to bring the side back on level terms. Siraj himself confirmed that Bumrah would play at Old Trafford, though there are other selection calls that are up in the air.
Reddy ruled out
Nitish Kumar Reddy is out of the series with a knee injury while increasingly, it appears as if Akash Deep will miss at least the next Test with a groin problem. Deep bowled a few exploratory balls on a practice pitch at the Old Trafford outfield but didn’t bowl in the nets, where Anshul Kamboj, brought in as cover, caught the eye with his bustling approach.
Assuming Deep is out of commission for the time being, India will have three less personnel to pick from — Arshdeep Singh has been ruled out with an impact
injury to his left thumb. That means at least two changes to the XI that lost at Lord’s. One of the talking points is whether India will turn again to Shardul Thakur, dropped after the first Test, to fill the breach created by Nitish’s unavailability, or if they will go the other way and bring back Sai Sudharsan, the left-hand batter.
Old Trafford’s propensity to help the spinners as the match progresses could bring left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav into the fray, but India have tended to rely heavily on batting depth after their twin collapses in Leeds and will therefore need a mindset shift if they are to play Kuldeep ahead of Washington Sundar. But as Siraj so pithily pointed out, at the end of the day, it almost doesn’t matter what combination takes the field. The important thing is for all the parts to play their part, if that makes sense, so that The Oval doesn’t host a dead rubber. Towards that end, a first toss win as captain by Shubman Gill won’t be the worst start.
569.4
No. of overs bowled by Mohd Siraj since Januray 2023 — only behind Australians Pat Cummins (721.2) and Mitchell Starc (665.1) among pacers
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