Michael Atherton compared Siraj to Yorkshire and England legend, the warhorse, big-grinned Darren Gough, a fiery fast bowler from his playing days. He said that Siraj can lift the whole team with his enthusiasm, which makes 35 runs not a mere formality.
“Absolutely, and the type of cricketer I think that just makes other people rise as well. We had one way back in my time, Darren Gough, would make people play better just because of the way they carried on in the middle and the dressing room, actually,” Atherton told Sky. “When the going gets tough, there are some characters that just grow a bit taller. He is one, and everybody else will look at him,” Atherton said.
Elaborating, he added, “He’s a bit of a leader in the field. He’s not the captain obviously, not wearing the armband. But he’s the guy they look to when it gets tough. So he makes others play better in those moments.”
Siraj, who crossed the milestone of 200 wickets, also surpassed Bhubneshwar Kumar and is now behind only Jasprit Bumrah for most wickets (24) against England in England. His spell on the fourth day was a scorching one, bowling eight overs, giving away 33 runs, and getting a crucial wicket of Ollie Pope to end the first session with figures of 2 for 44 in 12 overs, though he set up the board for Prasidh to snare wickets.
The hard-working bowler is the leading wicket-taker with 20 wickets at an average of 34.30 in nine innings, with best figures of 6/70. He went past Bhuvneshwar’s 19-wickets in 2014 at an average of 26.63 and best figures of 6/82.
But Siraj waved away all concerns of breaking down, even as other pacers from both sides ended up knackered if not broken, and explained, “I love to play for the country. I don’t think of breaking down or anything. I try to make simple plans whenever I am in the field. I give it everything. And rest will follow,” Siraj told Sky Cricket after the fourth day.
“Since childhood, why did you play…motivation is to play for India. I don’t fixate on the result. Just give 100 percent in the body. When you relax after a tough day, you ask yourself if the answer is yes, you have 100 percent, then I sleep well, concluded Siraj.
