Mohammed Siraj is every captain’s dream: Shubman Gill

A bowler of Mohammed Siraj’s calibre and skill-set is every captain’s dream, feels Indian captain Shubman Gill, terming the 2-2 scoreline as a “fair reflection” of the quality of cricket that was on display in the five-Test series against England.

Gill, who was India’s ‘Player Of The Series’ with 754 runs and four hundreds, was all praise for Siraj, whose lion-hearted effort got him nine wickets in a series levelling performance at the Oval.

“Siraj is a captain’s dream. Gave it his all every ball and every spell he bowled. 2-2 is a fair reflection. It shows how passionate both teams were and how well they played,” Gill told Michael Atherton at the post-match presentation ceremony.

He also reserved praise for pacer Prasidh Krishna, who got eight wickets in the game even as he went for a few runs.

“When you have bowlers like Siraj and Prasidh, captaincy looks easy. I think the way we responded today was magnificent. We were confident, even yesterday, we knew they were under pressure,” Gill said.

About his coming of age as a batter in the just-concluded series, Gill admitted that it was satisfying.

“We wanted to make sure it stayed throughout. Very rewarding, my aim was to be the best batter in this series and getting there is very satisfying. It’s always a matter of sorting things out technically and mentally, they are correlated.”

Asked about learning from the six weeks, he replied: “We never give up”.

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DDCA delays coaching staff finalisation amid DPL T20 rush

Over 300 applications have been received for the 100-plus positions by the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) for the various teams and selection committees for the 2025–26 domestic season. But the process of finalising the personnel has been quite slow due to official apathy and the clash with the Delhi Premier League (DPL) T20 starting on August 2.

First, the process began extremely late, and now it threatens to be further delayed by the month-long DPL T20. Although interviews of the applicants have begun, DDCA has reportedly set no deadline for the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) to finish the same. And since everyone at the DDCA will be focused on the DPL T20 until August 31, the process of interviews could slow down further as many applicants are involved with the DPL franchisees as well.