Trump Sharpens Verbal Assault on India; When Mohammad Siraj Bowled a Seamer at Guru Dutt; Bangladesh to Vote in Feb 2026

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Tanweer Alam, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Seema Chishti, Sushant Singh, MK Venu, and Siddharth Varadarajan | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

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The Long Cable

When Mohammad Siraj Bowled a Seamer at Guru Dutt

Seema Chishti

All years are becoming about events and commemorations. At a time when social media has a vested interest in driving ‘engagement’, no button is left unpressed. There is a premium on creating moments (‘#OTD or On This Day) which can be memed, commemorated, outraged over, wept about and giggled at, all to draw our attention – but rarely are there quality commemorations.

Yesterday was different. Acting legend Guru Dutt’s centenary and India’s closest ever cricket test victory in its 93-year history, hung together on several media feeds.

And then there was ‘Miyan’ Mohammad Siraj, the feisty and expressive one, who took five wickets and bowled more than 1,100 deliveries (185.3 overs). He was seen doing something that brought the two worlds - Guru Dutt and cricket - together in a most dramatic way.

Check out these two images.

It was a dramatic contrast. Despite looking like Guru Dutt’s ‘Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai’ pose from Pyasa (1957), this young, bubbling and completely ‘Naya Team India’ had its arms wide open, in sublime delight,