Pragyan Ojha shares cricketing superstition: The call that didn’t go through

NEW DELHI: Former Indian spinner Pragyan Ojha shared his long-standing superstition. He mentioned that he always called his family before a match, but a missed call due to poor network in Sri Lanka which led to him becoming Muttiah Muralitharan’s 800th wicket.

Ojha last played an international game in 2013, which was also the retirement match for Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar at the Wankhede Stadium. In the game, he managed to take ten wickets and was awarded the Player of the Match.

Speaking on ‘Cheeky Singles’, Pragyan Ojha said, “Whenever I used to get in the team bus before a match, I would automatically call my mom, then my dad. Even if both of them were sitting together, I’d call them separately. Then I’d call my uncle, who was a cricketer and the one who inspired me to take up the game. Even if I had called my uncle 10 minutes before the match, he would have picked up. But, in Sri Lanka, at that time, there was no network, and the call didn’t go through. Because of that, I became Muttiah Muralitharan’s 800th wicket”.

The 33-year-old Ojha had made his international debut in 2008 against Bangladesh in Karachi. A year later, he went on to make his Test debut against Sri Lanka . The spinner went on to play 24 Tests, 18 ODIs and six T20Is for India and finished with a total of 144 wickets in the international game.

In the longest format of the game, he managed to take 113 wickets, with the best bowling figures of 6-47. He was last seen in action in 2018 as he played a first-class match in Dehradun. He also made a name for himself in the Indian Premier League as he played for the Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians.

He was a key member of the Deccan Chargers IPL-winning team in 2009. He last played a match in the premier tournament in 2015 for the Mumbai Indians. (ANI)