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When Mohammed Siraj Annoyed KL Rahul As A Net Bowler Before IPL And India Debut

image-lq4z50pzKL Rahul and Mohammed Siraj (x.com)

Mohammed Siraj shot himself to unprecedented stardom soon after making his international debut for Team India. In his maiden Test assignment in Australia, the speedster helmed his team’s pace attack amidst injuries to several key players, and emerged as one of the standout performers of India’s historic series triumph ‘Down Under’.

Remarkably, Siraj had displayed first signs of his bowling brilliance back as a net bowler itself, when he was struggling to make it to Hyderabad’s regular set-up in domestic cricket.

In May 2023, during an interaction with Gaurav Kapoor on ‘Breakfast with Champions’, the fast bowler narrated an old incident involving then RCB batting stalwart KL Rahul. He claimed that during his bowling routine to Rahul in the nets, the senior right-hander was left annoyed at one stage due to speedster’s repeated bouncers.

Mohammed Siraj claims he annoyed KL Rahul

During a candid conversation with Gaurav Kapoor, Mohammed Siraj claimed that he annoyed KL Rahul during a training session back when he was a net bowler.

The speedster said that during IPL 2016, prior to SRH vs RCB game, he was tasked to bowl at then RCB player KL Rahul in the nets. Siraj added that he kept hurling one bouncer after the other, which visibly agitated the batsman. According to the Hyderabad-based cricketer, Rahul got annoyed and responded:

“Khali bouncer hi aata hain tujhe?” (Do you only know to bowl bouncers?)

The fast bowler responded back to his senior:

“Bhaiya, I know other stuff too.”

Mohammed Siraj further claimed that his bowling routine to KL Rahul impressed Bharat Arun, who soon became Hyderabad’s coach in Ranji Trophy.

The speedster eventually became one of Hyderabad’s frequent starting XI players during the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy, a year after making his first-class debut for them in November 2015.

To date, Siraj has turned up for Team India across 21 Tests, 41 ODIs and nine T20Is, and is part of a lethal pace triad with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami.