Indian bowler Mohammed Siraj has shared dressing room with a lot of legends like MS Dhoni. The pacer recalled an incident that demonstrated how amusing the legend is with his one-liners.
Siraj once approached him for a bat after noticing that everyone else was doing the same. Dhoni made a funny remark, reminding the bowler that he bats further down the order and might need a chest pad to defend himself against short-pitched deliveries.
Here’s what Mohammed Siraj had to say about his chat with Thala on the show ‘Breakfast with Champions‘:
“Dhoni bhai once came into the dressing room with pads on. Everybody around was asking for bat from him so even I asked. He replied to me by saying, “Why do you need a bat? You need a chest pad. Wait I will order one for you.” He also said that if I increase the stroke of this bat, he would give me two more bats.”
Siraj also discussed how former Indian bowling coach Bharat Arun was instrumental in helping him achieve an uninterrupted run for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy. He went on to say:
“I had played a Ranji Trophy game for Hyderabad and had picked up a wicket, but was dropped later. I wasn’t even selected in the squad later, but the following year, Bharat Arun sir saw me bowling in the nets ahead of RCB vs SRH game. He asked Laxman sir about me but nobody knew. Next year Arun sir came into Hyderabad cricket as head coach. He demanded that he wanted me in the team. He believed in me and I was the highest wicket-taker that year.”
Mohammed Siraj was on the verge of quitting cricket.
Mohammed Siraj may have raised a few eyebrows when he admitted that he considered retiring from competitive cricket during the shutdown. Siraj repeatedly leaked runs for RCB in the IPL, which scared him to the point where he decided to give himself one final opportunity.
The pacer put in a lot of effort in lockdown and emerged as an entirely new bowler in the ongoing IPL 2023. In response, he stated:
“The amount of failures I have seen, no one else would have. I used to get hammered almost every game earlier for RCB. Moreover, this social media is such a dirty place, you have to be far away from it. I had decided in lockdown that I had to work on myself for a year, or I would quit cricket and do a job. I worked on my fitness and bowling, and after that it has been just completely different level of satisfaction to play the game.”
Mohammed Siraj has quickly established himself as one of India’s most prominent pacers in ODIs and Tests.
