Siraj and Akash make the new ball talk

On a mostly lifeless Edgbaston pitch, the fast-bowling pair destroyed England by claiming 17 of the 20 wickets. Siraj secured a match haul of seven for 127 while Akash a career-best 10 for 187.

The conditions were nowhere close to what one expects in the Old Blighty. There was little seam movement and near-zero swing, and the Dukes ball appeared to lose shape after 20-odd overs.

To strike under constricted circumstances and small windows spoke volumes of their skill. In football terms, it was like having an Expected Goals metric of 1, which means you score a goal with every chance you create.

Until the start of the Birmingham Test, only Jasprit Bumrah was said to possess this quality. Leeds, where India lost the opening Test by five wickets, bore testament to this. And when India chose to rest the 31-year-old for the second tie to manage his workload better, it seemed like a costly gamble.

It was to Siraj’s and Akash’s credit that it paid off as India maximised its opportunities while bowling with a brand new cherry. In the first innings, the duo left England reeling at 25 for three (7.1 overs) and then 84 for five (21.4) before taking the second new ball at 80.2 overs and gobbling up the last five batters for just 20 runs (89.3). In the second essay, it was 50 for three (10.2) and 83 for five (21.3).

If one needed a stamping-of-the-authority moment, it was Akash’s dismissal of talisman Joe Root late on Saturday, the wicket captain Shubman Gill said was the turning point. The ball straightened after being delivered from slightly wide and rattled the off-stump to leave Root nearly floored. Akash then gestured with his hand that he was here to stay.

“It is a pleasing sign from a growing bowling attack,” India bowling coach Morne Morkel said on that day. “Akash is an attacking bowler who asks questions by bowling at the stumps a lot. That’s one of the golden rules here in England — to ask questions in the [line of the] stumps. Coming back from his [back] injury and running in with high pace… it’s a nice sign for us.”

For Siraj, the five-wicket performance in the first innings (six for 70) would have brought great relief. A tireless operator who played all five Tests in Australia in the most recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy, he has often lacked luck.

The 31-year-old took 20 wickets Down Under but not one five-wicket haul. The Edgbaston effort was his first five-for in 15 Tests since the six for 15 against South Africa in Cape Town in January 2024.

“He will always push his body to the limit,” Morkel said of Siraj. “Sometimes the guilty part of him is trying too hard. It’s about managing the aggression and intensity because he really bowls with his heart on his sleeve.

“In a match where he’s the leader of the attack, he got the wickets. But in terms of effort and energy, and with a sore body, he will always put his hand up. I don’t think we give him enough credit for that,” the South African added.