New Delhi: India seamer Mohammed Siraj reached Mumbai from London on Wednesday after playing a leading role in his team’s 2-2 draw in the England Test series.
The 31-year-old finished the five-match series as the highest wicket taker with 23 scalps as India won the fifth Test to share the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
He was the only pacer across the two teams to featue in the all five matches played in the English summmer and landed in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport terminal wearing black casuals.
A small group of fans received him with much fanfare as requests were made for selfies and autographs.
Siraj quickly hopped into a car and left the airport and might catch a connecting flight to his home town Hyderabad later in the day.
India deserved Oval Test win, says McCullum
India were the rightful winners of the final Test at the Oval as they finished the game on a stronger note, said England head coach Brendon McCullum, .
England needed only 35 more runs to win on the final day to win and and had four wickets in hand, but Siraj’s three wickets in a five-wicket innings haul took India to a famous six-run win.
“The way India were late on in this Test, Mohammed Siraj has the absolute heart of a lion to bowl 90mph in his 30th over of his fifth Test match. It’s quite an incredible effort,” McCullum was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
“As much as we got ourselves in a winning position this Test match, I feel like they deserved to win. They played better cricket.”
Not only in the fifth Test, England were in a dominant position in the fourth game at Manchester too but couldn’t force a win as India escaped with a draw.
“We threw everything at them in the series. It was testament to how stoic they are as a team. We knew when they turned up in England it would be a very stern challenge and we’d have to play excellent cricket to get the result we wanted,” he added.
England have their work cut out ahead of their Ashes series in Australia later this year.
“We’ll let this one sit, we’ll digest it. We’ll be able to pick out what has gone well then start to work out how we can keep improving so, when we do arrive out in Australia, we give ourselves a huge chance,” McCullum said.
“We’re in the middle now, halfway through what we knew was going to be an unbelievable 12 months of Test cricket. We know we’ve got some room to improve. You’re always learning any time you get to see guys having to dig deep and go to places they’ve maybe not been before.
“There’s lots to pick out as we give ourselves time for this to digest and work out areas we can look to improve for our next challenge. Ultimately, I’m really proud of the guys and their efforts.
“It’s been a combative series, it’s taken its toll with injuries, some of the best players have gone home injured,” he added.