Quit cricket and drive autos: Mohammad Siraj opens up on abuse after IPL 2019

Mohammad Siraj might be the frontline pace bowler for India in the ongoing West Indies series, but it was not long ago that he was not taken seriously as a white ball bowler in the Indian Premier League circuit.

Before his meteoric rise in the Australia tour of 2020, Siraj was struggling for form at the Royal Challengers Bangalore and revealed in a podcast that in 2019 he believed his career was over.

“People said ‘quit cricket and go back and drive autos with your father,” the loved Miyabhai told RCB Podcast.

He referred to the over bowled against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2019 when he bowled two beamers before being taken out of the attack by umpires. Siraj had gone for 36 in his 2.2 overs and was smacked for 5 sixes in that game.

"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,’” Siraj added.

Currently famed for his ability to bowl to the left handers, Siraj has saw his stocks rise through the roof after troubling David Warner in the red ball format. But this was not the case back in 2019 when he felt that his IPL career was on the line. Siraj thanked the franchise for having his back during that time and stated that any other franchise in RCB’s position would have let a bowler like him go after that horrid run of form.

"2019, the performance with RCB was so bad that I thought that's the end of my IPL career," he said. "But then I realised 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."