In the last 28 months, Mohammed Siraj has seen it all. He lost his father early into the tour of Australia in November 2020 and could not come home because of the quarantine norms down under. Moreover, none of his teammates could even go to his room to give him a shoulder to cry on. At the time, there were cops outside every room just in case the Indians tried to violate Covid protocols. Only the physio was allowed to go to his room to treat him, and Nitin Patel used that window to go and console the young man who was in mourning. Enduring grief, he stayed on to do duty for his team and had a dream debut in Melbourne.
Just when we thought that everyone would rally behind him and encourage the youngster, we heard reports of racial abuse in Sydney. Yet again, Siraj endured and led India to a famous series win at the Gabba in Brisbane. In fact, what will forever remain a perfect picture-postcard for India was when Mohammed Siraj was handed the Indian flag by his teammates so he could lead the victory parade with thousands of Indian supporters cheering their new-found hero.
Since then, he has gotten better and better. Be it in England or at home, he is now India’s go-to man in red-ball cricket.
In the ongoing IPL, he has been stellar for Royal Challengers Bangalore, repaying every bit of the faith the franchise had reposed by retaining him.
“When I played for RCB in 2018, I had a very poor start,” said Siraj, soon after RCB had made public their intention to retain him in 2021. “In fact, when I think back to my season with RCB in 2018, and then think that three years down the line the franchise retained me among their top three players, it is almost like a dream. They have been great and have reposed faith in me and I will do my best to repay it back.”
Virat-Faf Alliance, and Siraj Brilliance Put Bangalore Back on Track
With Siraj, you always get 100 percent. That’s him. He might lose, but in terms of effort, there will never be any less push. And that’s what makes him special. He draws our attention to the fact that there is so much more to sport than winning or losing. That one team will win on a given day and one will lose despite their best efforts is only a surface reality. What is at times more important than the winning or losing, stuff that we don’t often see, may well convey the true significance of sport. The success of Siraj is such a story.
Here was a young man from Hyderabad who had lost his father, but was unable to come back to his family. Grief-stricken, he was still striving to put smiles on millions of faces with his teammates cheering him on in Australia. He wasn’t Muslim or Hindu. He was Indian. This was the India of our dreams turning into a reality. Not the toxic India that plays out every day on national television. Not the divisive India that plays into the hands of politicians. Not the India deeply divided by privilege and under-privilege. This was an India of hope, and an India that dares to dream. Siraj isn’t the most eloquent. He need not be. What he is and will be is what our country is all about. Hard work and more hard work with dignity and integrity, and the realisation that such effort does pay off.
We don’t judge Siraj by his religion anymore. How many of us thought of whether he was Hindu or Muslim when he was walking with the national flag? Or when he got Liam Livingstone out with the perfect DRS? How many of us even bothered about his religion or caste or other markers of identity? His is the perfect underdog story, which we so identify with in India, and that’s what makes him relevant.
Siraj has failed on multiple occasions in the past, just like so many of us have. But he dared to push on and eventually win. Can we all do the same? A little more discipline and self-restraint, and we can indeed win our own little battles. If Siraj can, we can. That’s the backstage lesson we need to imbibe.