By: Sports DeskUpdated: October 6, 2025 09:12 AM IST 3 min readPlayer of the match India's Mohammed Siraj after India won the match against England on day five of the fifth cricket test match between England and India at The Kia Oval in London, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)India’s pace spearhead Mohammed Siraj has opened up about the decision to bowl in the final Test against England earlier this year, where he led the team to a famous win, which helped the Shubman Gill-led side to level the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy 2-2. Siraj, speaking to The Indian Express in an Idea Exchange, recently, said that if there was one more Test in the series against England, he would have played in that as well.The series against England had seen Siraj pick up 23 wickets — which was the highest by a bowler from either side, of which nine scalps came in the final Test. With the frontline pacer Jasprit Bumrah not playing in the final Test, Siraj was given an option as well to skip the Oval Test because there were concerns about the physical toll of bowling so much.“Shubman Gill asked me, ‘Kaisi hai teri body?’ (How is your body?). I said, ‘Ekdum first-class’. He asked me if I would play. I said yes. He said, you are the main bowler for us, like Jasprit Bumrah, you decide. I said I’m available and am 100 per cent fit. I will give it everything. As for my body being tired, to be honest, I would have played one more Test if it was there. I didn’t feel tired. But I was in a zone. When you enter that zone, you don’t know what you are doing, but just have that feeling that I have to do something here,” Siraj said in a conversation with The Indian Express. India’s Mohammed Siraj and Dhruv Jurel celebrate their win against England in the fifth cricket Test match at The Oval in London. (AP Photo)Siraj went on to set the scene for the final day of the fifth Test, where he became a hero after some heartbreaking moments earlier on in the series like touching the ropes after catching Harry Brook on day 4 of the fifth Test and getting bowled in the Lords Test.MUST READ: Mohammed Siraj at The Indian Express Idea Exchange | God had written ‘ja hero ban ja tu, become a hero’“It was a script written for me from somewhere up there. From getting bowled in Lords (the Test that India lost), then reaching Oval. Then I took a catch (of Harry Brook) and touched the boundary. Everything was written for me. It was a script from God. When I woke up on that final morning, they needed 35 runs.“I told myself that this game wouldn’t go beyond an hour and that I will win this match. The match was to start at 11 am and the team bus would leave by 9 am. I woke up at 6 am! I asked myself, ‘Why did I wake up so early today?’ I had woken up suddenly. After that, I wrote down, ‘I can do this, win the game’. When the ball came out of my hand, the execution was exactly how I was thinking; it’s a good sign. God had written, ‘Ja hero ban ja tu, become a hero’.” Siraj added.Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.© IE Online Media Services Pvt LtdTags:Ind vs EngMohammed Siraj