"England team was wanting to give him a handshake" - Former India stumper opens up on heartwarming moment after ENG vs IND 2025 5th Test

Former India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik revealed how the England players wanted to shake hands with Mohammed Siraj after the fifth Test at The Oval on Monday, August 4. The 40-year-old said that the home team waited for the pacer to finish the interview with the broadcaster before shaking his hands after an entertaining series.

Siraj was fined 15 percent of his match fee in the third Test at Lord's for his reaction after dismissing Ben Duckett in the second innings. Speaking on Sky Sports Cricket, Karthik said:

"I'll tell you a small moment. This series has been spicy. There's been a lot of back and forth, a lot of words in between Test matches. But as I was interviewing Siraj, he just ticked me saying, 'I want to be done with this'. Why?

"Because the England team was wanting to give him a handshake and he wanted to get done with that interview and the England team waited the whole time when I finished the interview to give a handshake back to him. Small moments like these tell you how they fight hard on the field, but the respect they have for each other and was beautiful to watch."

Siraj claimed a five-wicket haul in the second innings, including three scalps on the last day to clinch a memorable, series-levelling win for the visitors. He ended the series with 23 wickets, four more than the next best: England's Josh Tongue.

Nasser Hussain praises India for their ability to bounce back from difficult positions

Former England captain Nasser Hussain praised India for how they bounced back every time they were in a spot of bother in the series. The 57-year-old stressed on the volume of cricket Indian players had played and credited them for digging deep in their physical and mental reserves to bounce back from difficult positions.

"(How India have bounced back each time they have been down and out) That tells you something about the team that they can dig deep after so much cricket and remember Indian cricketers play a lot of cricket leading up to this, a long IPL. They would have come here, fairly tired.

"You get to the end of a series and when the game is going against you, they were flat between lunch and tea. They were flat after tea. They have lost five tosses in the whole series and yet they can summon up those reserves of strength, mental and physical to be able to drag it back and get it back to 2-2," Hussain said.

India were 0/2 in the second innings of the fourth Test at Manchester, but centuries from Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar helped them draw the Test. On the fourth day at The Oval, England looked set to win the match at 301/3, but the bowlers took 7/66 and bowled them out for 367 to clinch a six-run win.