T20 World Cup: Mohammed Siraj believes in God’s plan after comeback

The sight of a tearful Mohammed Siraj, along with his teammates, is still vivid from TV screens the night Rohit Sharma & Co. ended a 13-year World Cup drought in Barbados in June 2024. However, the 31-year-old pace lynchpin of the Indian team had given up on hopes of an encore after being out of the T20 set-up for last 19 months — until a call from skipper 'Surya bhai' two days back changed everything.  

The last-minute knee injury to Harshit Rana, sustained during the only warm-up game India played against South Africa, was a cruel one for the Delhi youngster, but it opened the doors for the second most experienced customer in India’s pace line-up in Mohammed Shami’s absence. An extremely religious person, Siraj called it ‘God’s plan’ and returned to duty with figures of 4-0-29-3 against the US as India began its title-defence with a nervy win on Saturday night.

There were no signs of rust, because though Siraj was not part of the five-match T20I series against the Kiwis, he was captaining Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy. Despite being in and out of white ball set-ups many a time, he didn’t try to do anything different with a new ball against an inexperienced US batting line-up, and struck the first blow quickly.

‘’I just bowled the same line and length that I was bowling in the Ranji Trophy. When we were batting, I felt the new ball wasn’t that easy to hit. So my plan was to stick to the new ball, bowl wicket to wicket and if I could get a wicket there, it would help the team a lot. That was the plan, and I executed it and got wickets as well. So I’m very happy,’’ Siraj said at the post-match press conference.

The obvious question of how dramatic the last 24 hours were for him came up — as Siraj was actually bracing for a quiet Ramadan with his family rather than crisscrossing the country. ‘’When I was sitting on the flight, it felt like a dream because I never thought I would play in the World Cup. For the past year, the planning was that all the World Cup players would get chances in T20s. Hence, when I didn’t play in T20s, I understood that I wouldn’t be part of it this year.

‘’But God changed my destiny. I was spending time with my family and one day before, I got a message from Adrian (Le Roux) asking about my plans for the next few days. I said don’t message me right now — I am resting because I’m playing two four-day games. I need rest and after that we’ll see the plan.

‘’Then suddenly, Surya bhai called me. He said: get ready, pack your bags and come. I said Surya bhai, don’t joke, because this is not going to happen. He said I’m telling you the truth — get ready. As soon as he hung up, I got a call from selector Pragyan Ojha. No one can change what God has written.’’

The undisputed saviour for India on Saturday, who were reduced to 77 for six after being sent into bat, was their captain. His unbeaten 84 comprised of half the team total of 161 and was played under tremendous pressure – given the need to start the campaign on a winning note as defending champions and at home.

 No wonder, Gautam Gambhir called it a ‘masterclass’ while Siraj had an interesting observation to make: ‘’He reads the field and plays accordingly. When there were two off-side fielders inside, he played a wide yorker shot because square leg and fine leg were inside. Hats off to him for that innings. Even after losing so many wickets early, he stayed calm. This isn’t a bilateral series - it’s a World Cup. It’s very difficult to play such an innings in such a big event.’’

India will next play minnows Namibia in New Delhi on Thursday, 12 February.