Siraj cancels Real Madrid plans after last-minute call-up, shines in T20 World Cup opener

Mohammed Siraj was all set to fly halfway across the globe to watch his favourite football team Real Madrid play against Real Sociedad when skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s number beeped on his cellphone.

Suryakumar turned to Indian workhorse after injured Harshit Rana was ruled out of the T20 World Cup.

With Jasprit Bumrah unwell, Siraj was drafted into the playing eleven and he did what he always does: give his all behind every ball.

For that honest effort, he was rewarded with a three-wicket haul that helped India survive a scare from the spirited USA unit.

“Two days ago Surya bhai said ‘Miaan bags pack kaar aur aaja [Pack your bags and come (to Mumbai)]. I told him ‘Bhai mazaak maat karo kyon ki yeh to honewala hain nahi [Brother please don’t joke as this won’t happen]. But he said ‘mai sach keh raha hoon, ready ho ja’ [I am telling you the truth, get ready].”

“Then [India selector Pragyan] Ojha bhai called me… Whatever the almighty has written, no one can change that,” an elated Siraj narrated his comeback story after being the pick of the bowlers in India’s 29 run win in the T20 World Cup opener on Saturday.

When asked about how he had planned for the break in February after playing a couple of Ranji Trophy matches for Hyderabad, Siraj said, “There is a Real Madrid game on 15th and I was going to watch it and after that Ramzan, but whatever the almighty has written…”

In fact when team’s S&C coach Adrian Le Roux had messaged him asking “what’s the plan”, Siraj had replied: “‘don’t message me right now because I had played two four-day games and I need rest. I will see after this what the plan is.”

Siraj did not see the call-up coming as he was not in India’s plans for the tournament. The pacer was part of the 2024 victorious campaign in Barbados.

“It was feeling like a dream when I was on the flight, because I had not thought about playing in the World Cup,” Siraj said.

“The planning was going on for the last one year, those who were bound to play in this were getting the chances and since I had not played T20Is, I had understood that I won’t be a part of it.” It was perhaps God’s plan, something his teammate Rinku Singh alludes to often.