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Ravi Ashwin and Mohammed Siraj. (Photo Source: Instagram/Ravi Ashwin)
Winning four series back-to-back by defeating Sri Lanka and New Zealand at home in T20Is and ODIs, India kicked off 2023 in a resounding way. The Men in Blue trounced the two sides 3-0 in the ODI series under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, and 2-1 in the T20I series under Hardik Pandya’s leadership, to claim a memorable victory.
In addition to the veteran players, talented players like Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, and Mohammed Siraj were a big part of India’s spectacular performance. Gill has displayed early glimpses of grandeur with record-breaking innings in both ODIs and T20Is, while Suryakumar continues to astonish with his mind-blowing strokeplay.
However, Siraj’s quick development in ODIs has been pretty impressive given that most of his noteworthy accomplishments at the beginning of his India career came in red-ball cricket. However, the right-arm pacer has also improved his abilities in limited overs, and as a result, his ICC ranking saw a major upsurge as he currently tops the charts as the No. 1 ODI bowler.
Ravichandran Ashwin posted a video of India’s practise session in Nagpur on his Instagram story, and also uploaded a couple of videos of an entertaining conversation he had with Siraj, wherein he inquired about the fast bowler’s reaction to being ranked the top ODI bowler.
In the first clip, Ashwin asked Siraj in Tamil asking “No. 1 ODI bowler, yeppadi da irrukai, yeppadi da feel pannrai?” (No. 1 ODI bowler, how are you? How are you feeling?) to which Siraj replied in his mother tongue. On being asked by Ashwin how he was feeling after becoming the World No. 1 bowler in ODIs, Siraj said:
“Bahut hi achha lag raha hai, socha nahi tha ki number 1 bowler banunga. It’s a good feeling (I’m feeling quite good, I’ve never imagined I would become number 1 bowler).”
🥹🫶🏻 pic.twitter.com/JammUlLF0Z
— Vaishnavi Iyer (@Vaishnaviiyer14) February 4, 2023
Team India gears up for Australia challenge
The 28-year-old is now beginning to work himself up for the all-important Border-Gavaskar Trophy, while he takes it all in. India is all set to host Australia for the four-match Test series starting February 09, and both sides have started training rigorously to make it to the finals of the World Test Championship.
All of India’s key Test players, including the team’s skipper Rohit Sharma, former skipper Virat Kohli, Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara, and all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja, and Ravichandran Ashwin, among others, began their training session on Friday, February 3.
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