Gautam Gambhir, a former cricketer for India who is now a broadcaster, has always been upfront when evaluating his team’s performance following a game or a series. Among many other things that Gambhir remarked following the Sri Lanka ODI series, he suggested that the player of the series award should have been shared rather than handed to a single person. Since he scored 283 runs in three games against Sri Lanka, including a few of centuries, Virat Kohli, a mainstay of Indian batting, was named the player of the series. However, Gambhir believed that Mohammed Siraj, a bowler, was on par with Kohli.

Star Sports never misses a chance to show Gautam Gambhir’s expressions after Virat Kohli’s masterclass _ pic.twitter.com/UdwrNe8RIu
— feryy (@ffspari) January 10, 2023

Siraj did the same with the ball, routinely making early breakthroughs in the powerplay while also controlling the run-flow, while Kohli was the standout performer for India with the bat. Siraj finished the series with nine wickets, and Gambhir claimed that the bowler was outstanding and that a joint player of the series award should have been given.

“For me, I think he was on par with Virat Kohli. There should have been a joint Man of the Series because he was exceptional and these were beautiful batting wickets. I know we are always tempted towards batters getting big hundreds but I think Mohammed Siraj was absolutely exceptional too in this entire series,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.

The series finale saw Siraj turn in his greatest performance, taking 4/32 and nearly missing his first five-wicket haul as Sri Lanka capitulated to 73 all out in response to India’s 390. The brilliance of the spell, not just on Sunday but throughout the series, allowed India to enter Sri Lanka’s middle order early in all three games, despite Gambhir’s prediction that five-fors would eventually come.

“I think the hallmark is, he will get many more five-fors, it’s not about that he didn’t get it today but how good was he, especially with the new ball. In every game, he was able to set the tone,” Gambhir further added.