It is no secret that India’s star bowler Mohammed Siraj is a huge fan of football superstar Christiano Ronaldo. He is often seen imitating the Portuguese footballer’s signature ‘Siu’ celebration after taking wickets for a long time now.
Recently, he opened up about his famous celebration during a candid conversation with Mohammed Shami.
Mohammed Siraj Revealed The Reason Behind His Celebration
After the 1st ODI match both Mohammed Shami and Siraj, who picked three wickets each, got together for a candid chat. The video of the same was shared by the BCCI via their official social media handle. While the discussion between the two was mostly related to the game, but Shami took the opportunity to ask Siraj about his famous wicket-taking celebration. Siraj revealed:
“So, because I’m a Cristiano (Ronaldo) fan, which is why I celebrate like him. Whenever I’ve bowled a batter, I celebrate that way. Not when it is caught at fine leg or something.”
Responding to this, Shami came up with a piece of advice for Siraj as he suggested him to avoid jumps like these. He said:
“Ek advice hai… it’s a good thing that you are someone’s fan but as a fast bowler you should stay away from these jumps.”
Both Shami and Siraj played crucial roles in India’s win in the 1st ODI match as they picked three wickets each to bundle out Australia for 188 runs in the first innings at the Wankhede Stadium. During the interview, Siraj also talked about the wickets picked by Shami and his plan behind them. He asked:
“A fiery spell. To pick three wickets in this heat, what was your plan?,”
Responding to Siraj’s question, Shami said: “Nothing special. Just like we discuss in the team meetings, that we need to keep the ball in good areas, focus on good line and length, that was all I had in my mind. As you said, it was a very hot out there as well. You’ve felt the same as well. When we bowled the first spell, it was pretty hot. After the breeze started blowing, it became a little easy. The plan was to try and get off to a good start,” Shami replied.
Further, Siraj also asked how Shami was able to walk straight into the first ODI to bowl his quota of overs and deliver such an amazing performance after not having attended any practice session in Mumbai since playing in the Ahmedabad Test. He asked: “You played the Test match (in Ahmedabad) and then came here. There were practice sessions for two days. One was of course optional. But for two days, you didn’t come to practice and bowled directly in the game. How did you manage it?”
Speaking about this, Mohammed Shami said: “I think you didn’t play the Test in Ahmedabad. After 40 overs in the match, I thought I needed a couple of days for recovery. So I completed it and then came to play the game. The management also accepted that it was important for me to recover coming into this game. We’ve played so much cricket that we know of the skill and the ability. So it becomes crucial to recover in order to perform well.”
Watch the full interview here:
Of fiery fast bowling spells ⚡️⚡️ in hot Mumbai weather ☀️ to the importance of recovery 👏🏻👏🏻
Pacers @mdsirajofficial and @MdShami11 assemble after #TeamIndia’s win in the first #INDvAUS ODI 👌🏻👌🏻 – By @RajalArora
FULL INTERVIEW 🎥🔽 https://t.co/xwNyvD6Uwk pic.twitter.com/35FrdqEhli
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 18, 2023
