There is little Mohammed Siraj does which isn’t whole-hearted. Whether with a brand-new cherry or an aged, soft ball that offers him little joy, the Hyderabadi seldom stops trying. With the bat, his skills might be limited, but he tries to compensate for it with the largeness of his heart, though not always with great success.

Near-miracle at Lord’s

Last week at Lord’s, Siraj batted more than an hour in a desperate bid to help Ravindra Jadeja pull off a miracle before being dismissed in unfortunate fashion, a dead defensive stroke failing to prevent a ball from Shoaib Bashir from rolling back and behind him on to the leg-stump to seal England’s 22-run victory. It took Siraj a long time to recover from that. “I was confident I wouldn’t get out unless I played a bad shot,” he said on Monday afternoon. But once the realisation dawned that even though India were 1-2 down, there still were two matches to play, he regathered focus and was at it again during India’s first full training session leading up to the fourth Test, starting on Wednesday.

Siraj has been India’s tireless workhorse for a lot longer than this series, and India will again look to him to provide Jasprit Bumrah the support he needs to bring the side back on level terms. Siraj himself confirmed that Bumrah would play at Old Trafford, though there are other selection calls that are up in the air.