Mohammed Siraj earned praise from Telangana Police after a stellar show at The Oval during the final Test of the five-match series between England and India.
His match-defining display in the fifth Test (4/86 in 16.2 overs and 5/104 in 30.1 overs) earned his team a narrow six-run win, as the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy ended with a 2-2 scoreline.
Following the thrilling encounter, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy announced that the right-arm quick will be granted a prestigious Group-I government post. Notably, Siraj has been serving the role of Deputy Superintendent of Police in Telangana since October 11 last year.
Siraj spearheaded the pace-bowling unit for a couple of Tests as Jasprit Bumrah was rested as part of his workload management. Interestingly, Siraj performed much better when he had to lead the pace attack. Bumrah was not a part of the XI in the second and fifth Tests at Edgbaston and the Oval, respectively. Siraj bagged 16 of his 23 wickets in the series in these two games.
A prominent trait of the 31-year-old's bowling was the sheer energy with which he ran in to bowl each time he was at the top of his mark. Despite bowling long spells at a stretch, it never seemed as if he ran out of gas. Siraj consistently clocked 135-140 kph for the majority portion of his spells.
Speaking of the series, Indiawent down in the series-opening encounter by five wickets before levelling the series with a 336-run triumph at Edgbaston. England got the better of them in the Lord's Test, winning by 22 runs, before the two teams played out a draw at Old Trafford. The final match at the Oval went down right to the final day, with India eventually winning by just six runs to level the series.
