IPL 2024: Mohammed Siraj Impresses Sunil Gavaskar With Self-Belief, Never-Say-Die Attitude

Bengaluru: Mohammed Siraj’s self-belief and never-say-die attitude are his real strengths, opined former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar after the pacer contributed to Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s four-wicket win over Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League. Gavaskar’s comments came after Siraj played against Gujarat Titans despite having sickness for the past few days. Still, Siraj went on to grab the Player of the Match award after his 2/29 helped RCB restrict the visitors to 147.

He made the ball swing both ways in the powerplay, leading to the dismissal of Wriddhiman Saha and got the wicket of Shubman Gill later on to put RCB in command. “Every time you see Mohammed Siraj, you know that he’s going to give his heart out. Remember the time when his father passed away when he was in Australia. He carried on,” Gavaskar said during a show on Star Sports Cricket Live.

Parents are dear to every individual. Siraj’s decision to not visit his father for one last time showed his mental strength at that point in time and his love for the game and country. “A lot of people would want to go back because your parents are so dear to you. But I think he realised that playing for India was important. Also, he was not established at that stage.

“An established player would 100 per cent have gone back. And remember how spectacularly he bowled in that Gabba Test match. Getting somebody like Steve Smith out when he was on 55… so this is the real strength of Mohammed Siraj, the self-belief and the never-say-die attitude on the field,” he added.

Meanwhile, former Australian captain, Aaron Finch, too praised RCB skipper Faf du Plessis for his batting while chasing a small total like 148. With Virat Kohli by his side, Du Plessis put on 92 runs for the opening wicket before a middle-order collapse really made things tougher for the hosts.

However, it was Dinesh Karthik who ensured there are no further hiccups. “In a small run chase all it takes is one or two overs to really break the back of the innings. Faf did that from ball one when he was on song. RCB was acutely aware of their net run rate, crucial for their chances in the final four.

“They understood the importance of chasing the target swiftly,” said Finch. “Despite some unselfish batting in the middle overs, they aimed to accelerate the chase as much as possible. The brilliant start provided by Faf and Virat Kohli set the tone for their innings,” added the Australian.