Siraj has not looked back since that little opening that was given by Mahboob, who took him to the then president of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), Arshad Ayub and then secretary John Manoj
Mohammed Siraj. Pic/PTI
Cricket has been a passion and obsession for Mohammed Siraj since his childhood. As a kid, he would often run away from his modest home in the Banjara Hills region to play tennis cricket, leaving his mother, Shabana Begum furious.
“Yeh baccha bahut tang karta tha [this boy troubled me a lot],” Shabana had said during one of her early interviews in 2016. From a troublesome son to the nation’s hero, however, the 31-year-old fast bowler has made his parents, state and nation proud.
Hailing from a poor background [his father, late Mohammed Ghaus, was an autorickshaw driver while his mother worked as a helper at former Ranji opener
Abdul Azeem’s home], Siraj literally emerged from gully cricket. He would bowl fast, be with it a tennis ball or leather ball.
It all began at Charminar CC
Mohammed Mahboob Ahmed of Charminar Cricket Club, where Siraj played his first big-time cricket with the red ball in 2014, recalled his first meeting with the pacer. “One morning my friend Kaleem [a vegetable vendor] introduced me to Siraj, saying ‘look at this boy and play him.’ So, I did, and in the nets, he bowled really fast. In his first match, he scalped five wickets. Then in the second match, he took 13 across two innings,” said Mahboob.
Siraj has not looked back since that little opening that was given by Mahboob, who took him to the then president of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), Arshad Ayub and then secretary John Manoj.
Ayub recalled being impressed: “Siraj was very fast. He had that hunger to excel. We saw his potential and selected him in the U-22 team, and eventually fast-tracked him to the Ranji team in 2015. The next year we had Bharat Arun as our coach and he moulded him into a top quality bowler.”
Former Hyderabad opener Akshat Reddy, who led an emerging Siraj in the President’s XI during a local zonal championship, recalled how the young pacer didn’t have proper shoes. “I remember he did not have proper spikes and so would often slip on the grass. Azeem helped him with a new [pair of spikes. But he bowled really fast stuff anyway. No batter could play him.”
Hyderabad opener Tanmay Agarwal said Siraj’s attitude is what makes him stand out. “He has the same attitude, whether he’s playing club cricket, first-class cricket or international cricket. He just wants to go out there and perform,” said Agarwal.
Former India wicketkeeper and BCCI chairman of selectors MSK Prasad felt that systematic grooming has helped Siraj excel.
‘Systematic grooming is key’
“Systematic grooming helped Siraj grow as a fast bowler. By playing for India ‘A’ in a good number of matches, he got that confidence to bowl alongside pacers like [Mohammed] Shami and [Jasprit] Bumrah. Although he had a bad start in T20Is, he worked his way into the Test team. He had the character and is a
workhorse when it comes to bowling long spells. He has always loved challenges and today, in the absence of Bumrah, he took up the responsibility admirably,”
said Prasad.
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