Thought my IPL career was over after the 2019 season: Mohammed Siraj

India’s gun fast bowler Mohammed Siraj admitted that he thought his IPL career was over after the 2019 season with Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Siraj had a season to forget as he scalped only seven wickets in nine matches and conceded his runs at an economy rate of 9.55. RCB finished as the wooden spooners in that season.

In the same season, Siraj hit the lowest point as he conceded 36 runs in 2.2 overs he bowled against Kolkata Knight Riders. He was taken out of the attack after he bowled two beamers. Furthermore, Siraj also fluffed Chris Lynn’s catch in the run-chase and RCB went on to lose despite putting 205 runs on the board.

Subsequently, Siraj was trolled on social media by the naysayers. However, Siraj recalled MS Dhoni’s wise words and kept working hard on his game to make a solid comeback.

“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.”

Meanwhile, Siraj bounced back in style against the same team, KKR in IPL 2020. He returned with impressive figures of 3-8 in his quota of four overs and feels it was a life-changing game for him.

“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.”

It is well known that Siraj is a completely different bowler now. He had scalped 13 wickets in three Test matches against Australia and had played a key role in the team’s memorable series triumph in 2020-21.

Siraj has been retained by RCB along with Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell.