The Champions Trophy 2025 snub seems to have fired up the Hyderabadi fast bowler
Mohammed Siraj might’ve been going through a tough time with his international career. For the first time in many years in the ODI format, the pacer left out India’s squad for the Champions Trophy 2025. He was named among stand-bys and his services were not needed as India went on to lift the trophy for the third time.
Former teammates such as Dinesh Karthik had sympathised with Siraj for the snub while some former players such as Aakash Chopra felt that he should’ve been included in the squad.
In his most recent international outing, Siraj played all five matches in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 and claimed 20 wickets from 10 innings at an average of 31. Siraj had played starring roles in many other famous overseas victories, including Australia and England, he looked off-colour despite toiling away while bowling 157 overs in the series.
His failure to step up in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence in the fifth and final Test in Sydney which India needed to win in order to level the series also contributed to his axing.
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The recent treatment from the Indian selectors seemed to have fired up Siraj as the Hyderabadi pacer prepared for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 with a fiery spell. Siraj, who played for Royal Challengers Bengaluru for seven seasons, moved on to 2022 IPL winners Gujarat Titans this season for an auction price of INR 12.25 crore.
In the intra-squad practice game on Wednesday evening, Siraj was seen bowling a scorching spell to his Gujarat Titans teammates which included beautiful in-swingers, toe-crushing yorker, out-swingers that beat left-handers and got righthanders caught behind by the wicket-keeper.
Siraj will be shouldering a big responsibility going into IPL 2025 as he will be tasked with the new ball and also lead the pace attack alongside South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada. After two excellent seasons where they finished as winners and runners-up, GT failed to reach the playoffs in IPL 2024 after captain Hardik Pandya left the team.
Gujarat Titans are set to begin their campaign on March 25 against Punjab Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
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