One of the newest recruits of the Gujarat Titans, Mohammed Siraj has revealed how excited was Shubman Gill to welcome him to the franchise. With the IPL auction taking place when the players were in the middle of the Australia tour, Siraj hilariously disclosed that the right-handed batter had a towel wrapped around him when he welcomed him to the franchise.
Siraj started his IPL career with the SunRisers Hyderabad and moved to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), spending a significant amount of time. However, the Royal Challengers didn't retain his services for the upcoming edition. Nevertheless, the Titans shelled out ₹12.25 crore on him.
During an interaction ahead of IPL 2025, Siraj said, as a video of him emerged on social media.
"Baaju mein hee Shubman ka room tha. Toh jaise hee mera naam aaya, usne baaju se knock kiya. Usne bola 'tension mat le, tu toh idhar hee aane waala hai'. Jaise hee main pick hua GT mein, shower le raha tha, turant towel baandh ke, mujhe hug kara aake, aaja bhai GT family mein."
(Shubman's room was next to mine. So as soon as my name was announced, he kept knocking. He was telling me, 'you're definitely coming here now (GT) don't stress. And when I was picked up by the Gujarat Titans, he was taking a shower, he came to me with a towel wrapped around him, hugged me and said, 'Welcome to the Gujarat Titans family'.
Mohammed Siraj was named in the non-travelling reserves for the Champions Trophy 2025
Meanwhile, the Hyderabad-born speedster hadn't been picked in the main squad for the upcoming edition of the Champions Trophy. However, he was included as a non-travelling reserve alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube.
Having struggled largely during the five-Test series against Australia, Siraj couldn't even get the nod for the limited-overs series at home against England. Nevertheless, he is likely to start the game for the Titans in their opening game of IPL 2025 when they will face the Punjab Kings on March 25 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
