"He paid attention to only 2 things" - RP Singh lauds Mohammed Siraj's spell in ENG vs IND 2025 5th Test

Former India player RP Singh has lauded Mohammed Siraj for delivering a penetrative spell in England's first innings of the fifth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. He noted that the right-arm seamer didn't try anything special and concentrated on bowling in the right areas while varying the seam position.

Siraj registered figures of 4/86 in 16.2 overs to help India bowl England out for 247 on Day 2 (Friday, August 1) at The Oval. The visitors ended the day at 75/2 in their second innings, with a lead of 52 runs.

During a discussion on Sony Sports, Singh praised Siraj for ensuring that he bowled the right lengths and moved the ball both ways by changing the seam position.

"Siraj saw the areas in which England bowled in the first innings. He paid attention to only two things. One was the areas in which he had to bowl, and whenever he bowled with the seam, the swing was seen, and when he bowled with the scrambled seam, the ball pitched and came in for the right-handers," he said.

While observing that Siraj's incoming deliveries were difficult to counter, the former India pacer pointed out that the hard-working seamer surpassed Ben Stokes to become the highest wicket-taker in the ongoing series.

"He didn't do too much special. He picked his areas and worked with two variations. Fantastic bowling because the balls that came in after pitching were very difficult to play. With today's performance, Mohammed Siraj has reached the top of the wicket-takers' list in this series. He has crossed Ben Stokes. His impact has been seen in every match, with a good workload," Singh noted.

RP Singh highlighted that Mohammed Siraj bowled with the same speed, intent, and approach that he had done throughout the series. He added that the Hyderabad seamer was putting tremendous effort and that it seemed like something would happen whenever he was bowling.

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"31 runs went in his first 4 overs" - Hemang Badani lauds Mohammed Siraj's comeback in ENG vs IND 2025 5th Test

Mohammed Siraj erred in line and length in his first spell. [P/C: Getty]

In the same discussion, former India batter Hemang Badani praised Mohammed Siraj for bouncing back after an expensive first spell.

"31 runs went in his first four overs. Someone might have told him or he himself might have seen that his line and length were slightly wrong. He was bowling too wide before Lunch. His spell after Lunch was excellent. He was bowling at the stumps," he said.

The Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach highlighted that Siraj's straighter lines after Lunch yielded him rich dividends.

"All four wickets were on the stump line - three lbws and a bowled. So he figured out that he wouldn't be able to pick up wickets with the line he was bowling. He corrected that after Lunch, and you are seeing the result of that," Badani observed.

While opining that Mohammed Siraj was slightly fortunate to dismiss Ollie Pope (22 off 44) as the ball kept low, Hemang Badani added that Joe Root (29 off 45) is known to have problems against incoming deliveries. He termed Siraj's inswinging yorker to dismiss Jacob Bethell (6 off 14) an extremely special ball.

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Edited by Kartik Iyer