Captain Kohli and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly appreciate Siraj’s commitment for the team

Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj lost his father on Friday in Hyderabad. He was in Australia, training for the upcoming tour against the Aussies down under when he heard about his father’s demise. The news broke him as for him, his father was his biggest support system. The team management was with him all the time in this tough time. Indian captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri were also there with him during this time of grief.

BCCI released their official statement on Saturday confirming the news that Siraj was offered to go back home to be with his family at these challenging times. Siraj refused this as he said that he was on ‘national duty’ and nothing should come between him and his duty for the country.

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Siraj’s father was suffering from lung ailment and was admitted to the hospital in the month of October right before the RCB’s match against KKR. In that match Siraj delivered his best spell as he completely blew away the KKR top order and registered his best figures by taking 3 wickets and gave away just 8 runs in his 4 over quota. He won the Man of the Match award in that game. In a video posted by the RCB official handle he said that he was worried throughout the match as his father was admitted to the hospital just a day before this match. He went on to add that he was truly relieved when he got to know that his father was back home.

His father (age 53) was a auto driver who made sure that his son followed his passion and went on to represent the nation at the highest level. Siraj said that his father always said that his son will make the country proud. He further added that he was thankful that his father saw him playing in the national colors but his father always dreamt to see him play in the tests, unfortunately his father is no more there with him to see him in his debut test series.

BCCI director Sourav Ganguly on his twitter handle posted a tweet praising the move by Siraj to stay back and play for India.

If Siraj had decided to go back to India, he would have to go through the 14 day quarantine again as per the rules of Australian Government.