England's head coach Brendon McCullum commended Mohammed Siraj's gritty display during the recently-concluded five-match Test series between England and India.
Siraj ended the series as the leading wicket-taker with 23 wickets in nine innings.
McCullum complimented the pace Siraj clocked even late on in the fifth day of the final Test and felt India were justified in clinching the six-run win at The Oval.
"The way India were late on in this Test, Mohammed Siraj has the absolute heart of a lion to bowl 90 mph in his 30th over of his fifth Test match. It's quite an incredible effort. As much as we got ourselves in a winning position this Test match, I feel like they deserved to win. They played better cricket," stated McCullum, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
We threw everything at them in the series: McCullum
The ex-Kiwi cricketer stated that the manner in which India played reflected their mental strength.
"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," added McCullum.
Siraj earned the Player of the Match accolade for his career-best match haul of 9/190 (4/86 and 5/104). In total, he bowled a total of 185.3 overs across nine innings. It rarely felt that he was down on pace, as mentioned by McCullum.
India ended up retaining the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy by levelling the series 2-2. Skipper Shubman Gill was the leading run-getter of the series across both teams (754 runs in 10 innings). Siraj and Gill were the two major contributors for the Indian unit.
India's next red-ball assignments will be two-match Test series against West Indies and South Africa at home across October and November later this year. They will be keen on building on their form and solidify their position on the points table of the 2025-27 cycle of the World Test Championship.
