Supporting role no more, Mohammed Siraj you're a hero

Mohammed Siraj, they call you a workhorse. It's a back-handed compliment. Some say it openly, some privately, but they feel you don't have the skill to take wickets or lead attacks. When we point to the sustained pace and the accuracy that puts you in the league of Jasprit Bumrah - of course, nobody says you're Bumrah as a complete package - they point to a lack of an intangible skill, that of taking wickets. Or five-fors, of which you have only five in Test cricket.

You stick to the process. Not results. You are a true disciple of your Jassi bhai. You never bowl a half-volley without meaning to. You don't want to go searching, leak runs and ruin it for the guy who has to bowl after you. You look for lbws and bowleds. You have the outswinger, but you love the other toy more: the wobble-seam ball that tends to move in.

Despite being stoic about bowling outcomes, you are an emotional person. You have been all over this series: taking a stunning catch at Edgbaston, on your haunches after being bowled despite middling a back-foot defence to become the last wicket at Lord's, your head in your hands after reprieving Harry Brook at The Oval. You are going to be the tragic hero. The face of India's misfortune this series. Like you were at the 2023 ODI World Cup final.

Unless you can do something about it. What more can you do, though? You have bowled the most overs in the series, taken the most wickets. Since we started keeping these records, you have drawn more false shots in a series in England than anyone bar Pat Cummins in the 2023 Ashes. Even when India have come back in this match, Prasidh Krishna has the wickets, not you. You have only created excitement by beating the bat.

Why don't you just give up? You don't have the "it". You are not him. It's only 35 runs and four wickets to get.

You wake up two hours before the alarm, usually 8am. You pick up your phone, find a Cristiano Ronaldo poster that says "believe" and make it your wallpaper. Hope you know belief is not a skill. People want wickets.

You turn up with belief but England turn that 35 into 27 in the first two balls of the morning. How's that belief now?

Last night when it looked like you were beating the bat almost every ball, you were actually missing leg 30% of the time. Too many shouts, too few results. False shots are a spectrum, not a binary. False shots to your bowling are inferior to false shots to others' bowling, they say. Did you miss the window of opportunity because England had time to regroup and use a heavy roller?

You turn up thinking, let me start with an outswinger. Just to see how it's coming out. It goes away nicely. You get not only big swing, but also big seam. Something clicks inside you. You start playing with England's muscle memory and their subconscious. All series, they have been watching for your ball that jags back in. They are not prepared for this change in plan you have made in this moment. It is not a team plan. It is something you have decided to do on instinct.

Through this series, you have swung the ball away from right-hand batters only 30% of the time. Now you are practically bowling only outswing. And getting seam. With a 78-over-old ball. What sorcery is this? Batters can see what is coming but they can't react quickly enough because it's the last thing they expect. The control is impeccable again. Nothing fuller than 5 metres.

Jamie Smith tries to walk at you, ends up nicking behind. After taking it away nine times in a row, you try the wobble seam again. Down the leg for Gus Atkinson. Goes for a leg-bye. That brings the requirement down to 20. You try it again. Big inswing, big seam in. The shout is huge. Umpire Kumar Dharmasena takes forever to raise his finger.

You need this decision more desperately than can ever be described. Since your debut, nobody has been denied by the umpire's call as you have: six times. Nathan Lyon comes close with five, but he has also had five umpire's calls go his way. You have only two. On form, you are the last person who should be getting the rub of the green, but there are cricketing gods. They are watching. This replay shows the projection is just clipping leg. Cricketing gods exist.

You are now not only swinging the ball more than you have all series and seaming the old ball more than in all of the final innings, 182 overs into your work, you have the reserves to bowl your fastest spell of the series. Of the two balls you have bowled above 145 kph in this series, one is in this spell. Five of your 50 balls above 140 kph have come in this spell. The final yorker to end the game is 143.

Now you have the five-for in a thrilling win. A series-levelling win. As the leader of the attack. You are him. You have "it".

Now there should be reels and TikToks saying "I am only believe on Miya Bhai. Because game-changer player he is. Only one guy. Mohammed Siraj." A riff on the most beautiful line said about Bumrah. By you. On the sidelines of India's T20 World Cup win. Now you are in the middle of it. Only one guy. Mohammed Siraj.