Joe Root hails Mohammed Siraj, says he is a warrior amid ENG vs IND 5th Test

England’s veteran batter Joe Root showered praise on Mohammed Siraj for giving a whole-hearted effort with the ball in the Anderson-Tendulkar series. Siraj is known to give his 120% with the ball in every spell he bowls and he has done the heavy lifting for India in the ongoing series.

The 31-year-old has thus far bowled 181.2 overs and he is the leading wicket-taker in the series with 20 scalps. Siraj returned with impressive figures of 4-86 in the first innings at the Oval and accounted for Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Jacob Bethell.

In the second innings, Siraj had figures of 2-95 at the end of the fourth day’s play.

“He (Siraj) is a character, he is a warrior, he is a real warrior. He is someone you want on your team, he is that kind of character. He gives everything for India and credit to him for that. He’s got this like fake angriness about him sometimes, which I can see straight through. I enjoy playing against him, he has got a big smile on his face,” Root said during the press conference after Day 4.

Root also showered praise on Prasidh Krishna, who has taken 3-109 in the second innings. Krishna also bagged four wickets in the second innings.

“Prasidh is a proven performer, he is a brilliant player. You don’t play for India as a seamer without having a huge amount of talent. Clearly he is going to do great things in the game, but it was not anything between the two of us, that was more frustration from my part for not getting us over the line. That is where the frustration came from. There was no overhang from what happened in the first innings or anything like that,” he added.

Root was dismissed by Krishna when he was looking to guide the ball to third man. The England veteran batter said he was disappointed after failing to execute the shot he wanted.

“I mean in that scenario, we’d obviously come back out after the break. It started to do a little bit more, they bowled in some really good areas for that period of time and got it moving around, and I was more disappointed I missed out on what I thought should have gone for four,” Root said.

England need another 35 runs to win with four wickets remaining.