"I only believe in Jassi bhai." These were the words of Mohammed Siraj not very long ago. But WE believe in you, Miyan bhai.
Just think about it, this is the same Siraj who sat silently at Lord’s, visibly dejected. The same Siraj who dropped Harry Brook when he was on just 19 and watched him go on to score a century. But those won’t be the moments Siraj is remembered for.
He will be remembered for that yorker at The Oval — the one that shattered England’s hopes and helped India escape with a 2-2 draw in the five-match Test series. He will be remembered as the tireless warrior who kept charging in, day after day, spell after spell, while the rest of the team battled fatigue, form, and injuries.
Playing all 5 Tests as a fast bowler and bowling nearly 186 overs with unflinching intensity? Only Siraj could pull that off. He didn’t care about his body. He didn’t worry about “workload.” The only thing he cared about was one word: India.
He picked up 23 wickets in the series. No other bowler even reached 20. Siraj is in elite company alongside Kapil Dev and Vinoo Mankad, the only Indian bowlers to have played all five Tests in an away series on three different occasions and taken 10 or more wickets each time. To put that in perspective: no other fast bowler in the world has done this more than three times in the 21st century. That’s not just rare air — that’s stratospheric.
They said this was a tough transition phase. Big names have retired, injuries have piled up, and Bumrah won’t play every match — they said it would be hard for this team to keep winning.
But now, go tell them, there is only one answer to all those doubts: Mohammed Siraj. Because when India needed more than a cricketer, when they needed a fighter, a heartbeat, a storm, Siraj didn’t just step up. He roared in.
