Former English cricketer Monty Panesar feels England were fortunate to get Mohammed Siraj’s wicket in the Lord’s Test of the recent series against England. For the unversed, Siraj was the final wicket to fall to end India’s lower-order resistance, which ended up granting the hosts a 22-run win.
Monty Panesar praised the Indian players for showing up even after being previously involved in an intense Indian Premier League season (IPL 2025).
“After a heavy workload of the IPL, India go and play a five-match Test series. Every given moment, they turned up. At Old Trafford, they drew the Test match. At Lord’s, it could have been anyone’s game. They probably should have won that game, but England were very lucky with that wicket of Siraj,” stated Panesar, as quoted by Hindustan Times.
He showered praise on the manner in which India performed in the final clash of the hard-fought series. He lauded the relatively young Indian group to perform the way they did despite very few seasoned individuals in the team following the Test retirement of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin.
“At The Oval, they were brilliant. At The Oval, on the fifth day, overcast conditions, everything went in their favour. So, I think India played better cricket. I think The Oval Test match victory was probably, actually, the moment when it showed that India won the series,” he added.
“Well, I think everyone was taken by surprise. When Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin retired, everyone thought England would win the contest. But it shows the strength of Indian cricket,” remarked Panesar.
India ended up retaining the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy by levelling the series 2-2. Siraj (23 wickets in nine innings) and Shubman Gill (754 runs in 10 innings) ended up as the series’ leading wicket-taker and run-getter, respectively.
England won the first and third Tests by five wickets and 22 runs, respectively. On the other hand, the visitors emerged victorious in the second and fifth encounters by 336 runs and six runs, respectively.
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