Ragstoriches story becomes bigger with Siraj’s India selection

MUMBAI: Even until a few months back, Mohammed Siraj wasn’t quite a familiar name, even in the cricketing circles. He had made his first-class debut in 2015 and had quite a few good spells to his name as well but even then, it wasn’t enough to grab the selectors’ attention. After grinding through the domestic circuit for quite some time, that eventually came during the 2017 IPL.

Siraj’s is a typical rags-toriches to story. Born to an autorickshaw driver in Hyderabad, Siraj was swooped up for a mammoth ₹2.6 crore by Sunrisers Hyderabad despite having a base price of just ₹20 lakh. And as luck would have it, an injury to Ashish Nehra meant there was that glimmer of hope that every youngster craves for.

He didn’t disappoint and ended the season with 10 wickets from the six matches in which he featured in, including a four-for in the last league match against Gujarat Lions in Kanpur that helped his side qualify for the play-offs.

It was a justified call for the franchise to go after the seamer for that astronomical amount of money. Last season, Siraj was the second-highest wicket taker among pacers in the Ranji trophy and was third on the overall list behind Shahbaz Nadeem and Anupam Sanklecha.

Anyone acquainted with the help Indian pitches provide to fast bowlers would vouch that it wasn’t a mean achievement. He picked 41 wickets in nine matches at an average of 18.92 besides maintaining an impressive strike rate of around 36.

Siraj was part of the India A side that played four matches against New Zealand A. Although he didn’t play all the matches, Siraj picked four wickets in three games.

He featured for India Green in the Duleep Trophy this season but played in only one game as his side lost to India Red.