‘He is exceptional since he joined us’: GT director of cricket lauds Mohammed Siraj ahead of IPL 2025 encounter against Sunrisers Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Gujarat Titans (GT) director of cricket Vikram Solanki heaped praise on right-arm seamer Mohammed Siraj following his brilliant performance in the previous game.

Siraj brought thunder down the M Chinnaswamy Stadium with his economical yet fiery spell against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). He returned with figures of 3/19 after bowling a full quota of his four-over spell and was crowned Player of the Match for his searing performance.

“Sometimes we expect and ask a lot of young cricketers, and somebody that has achieved as much as Siraj has, sometimes we are very quick to judge one or two performances. He is exceptional since he joined us,” Vikram Solanki said in the pre-match press conference as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

After a shambolic start to his stint with the Titans, Siraj has found the groove and rhythm he is highly regarded for during his team’s previous clash against his former team, RCB. He opened his wicket’s account by sharply nipping the ball into Devdutt Padikkal and cleaned up his stumps. He unleashed the famous Cristiano Ronaldo celebration, marking the beginning of his dominance.

In his next over, he tested the speed gun, clicked 144kph and burst through Phil Salt’s stance to clean him up and add another name to his wickets column. He returned to attack in the death overs and got his third scalp of the day, forcing a top edge from Liam Livingstone (54), denting RCB’s hopes of crossing the 200-run mark.

The Shubman Gill-led side are currently placed at the third spot in the IPL 2025 points table with two wins (four points) in their three games so far in the 18th edition of the cash-rich league. Their next match in the competition is against last year finalists, Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.

Squads:

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kamindu Mendis, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aniket Verma, Pat Cummins (c), Harshal Patel, Simarjeet Singh, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari, Abhinav Manohar, Wiaan Mulder, Jaydev Unadkat, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa, Atharva Taide, Eshan Malinga, Sachin Baby

Gujarat Titans: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Arshad Khan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Washington Sundar, Jayant Yadav, Karim Janat, Kulwant Khejroliya, Gerald Coetzee, Manav Suthar, Kumar Kushagra, Gurnoor Brar, Nishant Sindhu. (ANI)