Mohammed Siraj is considered to be among the finest bowlers, for his IPL’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as well as for the Indian squad. Alongside Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell, he was also one of 3 players in the RCB’s retention. Indeed, it wasn’t long ago when Siraj was concerned for his future in cricket. Siraj Criticized By People saying ‘Quit Cricket And Drive Auto’.
Despite a promising start to his IPL journey with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), the pacer’s fortunes became worse when he was selected by RCB. Siraj’s worst campaign occurred in IPL 2019 when he concluded with only an economy of 9.55 and only took 7 wickets.
Things started to change for Siraj in a 2019 match against the KKR when the Hyderabad-born bowler handed up 5 sixes in his session and exited with stats of 36 runs in 2.2 overs. To make matters worse, Siraj was removed from the bowling assault after bowling 2 beamers. He also dropped Chris Lynn soon in the hunt, and RCB lost the match after scoring 205 batting first.
Siraj Criticized By People ‘Quit Cricket And Drive Auto’ :
Siraj Recalls How Dhoni’s Advice Helped Him To Ignore The Critics
“When I bowled those two beamers against KKR, people said ‘quit cricket and go back and drive autos with your father’,” Siraj told The RCB Podcast. “There were so many such comments. And people don’t see the struggle behind all this. But I remember when I first got selected how Mahi Bhai [MS Dhoni] told me to not listen to everything the people have to say about me. ‘You do well today and they’ll praise you and when you don’t the same people will abuse you. So don’t ever take it seriously.’ And yes, the same people who trolled me incessantly back then say ‘you’re the best bowler bhai’. So, I know. I don’t want anybody’s opinion. I’m the same Siraj I was back then”.
“2019 the performance with RCB was so bad that I thought that’s the end of my IPL career,” he said. “But then I realized that I still have age on my side. So I decided to trust myself a bit and thankfully the RCB management also backed me a lot at that time. I almost thought any franchise in their position would have let go of a bowler after that kind of performance, but they backed me, and then 2020 the game against KKR was a life-changing game for me,” Siraj Concluded.
Soon after, Siraj’s circumstances began to change. He corrected himself in the 2020 season, against the same competition, when he tried to break through the KKR top-order, emerging with numbers of 3-8 from 4 overs and became the first bowler to deliver 2 maiden overs in a match. Having a great IPL 2020 season, Siraj was given his Test debut amid India’s successful tour of Australia, wherein he bowled an amazing fifer in India’s historic success at Gabba.
