Mahi bhai always says to not take opinion of the people: Mohammed Siraj

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had suffered a humiliating defeat against the arch-rivals Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Wednesday, October 21 at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The RCB pacer Mohammed Siraj had put on his best bowling effort as he bowled a sensational spell of 4-2-8-3 with the new ball. This was the most economical spell of the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League.

Siraj had spit venom with each of his deliveries in his opening spell as he took three wickets while conceding zero runs. He got the better of Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana and Tom Banton in his first two overs to leave the opposition stunned. He also became the first-ever bowler to deliver two maiden overs in an IPL match in the process. Thus, KKR could only reach a paltry total of 84 in their 20 overs, registering the embarrassing record of scoring the lowest total after batting for the whole 20 overs on their name.

Though Siraj was greatly acknowledged for his lethal spell and everyone was speaking highly of the pacer, his journey in the world of cricket hasn’t been easy. The cricketer has not been able to live up to the expectations and has conceded a lot of runs in the past in the limited-overs format. Thus, he has been a favourite target for the trollers and the critics on social media.

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Speaking on all the hate he has been receiving thus far, Siraj explained that people should understand that it isn’t easy to perform in front of millions of people and every player has a bad day but that doesn’t mean that he is a bad bowler or he doesn’t know his job.

“See people like judging others. They don’t care about the struggle of others. All this did not come easy, right? Gift? The man has come to this platform after struggling a lot. It’s a lot of pressure man. Step on the ground for even 15 minutes…it’s so difficult in front of the crowd. Everyday gets hit, it is a T20. Some people have good days, some have bad days, that does not mean he is a bad bowler. Do this to him, that to him. It’s really wrong to do so,” Siraj said in a video uploaded on the RCB YouTube channel.

He further spoke about the advice that the former Indian captain MS Dhoni gave him regarding the trollers and haters. Siraj said that MS always says to not take the opinion of the people seriously as it keeps on changing according with time.

“Mahi (MS Dhoni) bhai always says to not take opinion of the people. You have one bad game and they will tell you, you are not good enough. If you keep thinking about those, you will go mad. Rather you think that the next match if you are going to do well, the same set of people who called you bad will start praising you that you are a good bowler.”