This is how MS Dhoni saved Mohammed Siraj's career

MS Dhoni is someone who motivates and backs players for what they do. There are many stories where players have come up and said that MS Dhoni's words changed how they approached things or how they handled a difficult situation. Mohammed Siraj is one of those players whom Dhoni helped when he went through a bad phase with Bangalore in 2019. This happened when people asked him to quit cricket.

In 2019, Siraj was not at his best playing for Bangalore in the Indian T20 League. In the nine matches that he played that season, he got only seven wickets. His economy that season was 9.55 runs per over, which is never a good sign. In a game against KKR, he conceded 36 runs in 2.2 overs before he was asked to drop the ball for bowling two beamers. He felt that Bangalore would drop him after a terrible season, but they backed him for 2020 and he got the results for it.

In YouTube show 'RCBPodcast', he said, "2019 the performance with RCB was so bad that I thought that is the end of my IPL career. But then I realized that I still have age on my side. So I decided to trust myself a bit and thankfully the RCB management also backed me. I almost thought any franchise in their position would have let go of a bowler after that kind of performance, but they backed me, and then 2020 the game against KKR was a life-changing game for me."

After his poor performances, Siraj faced a lot of criticism from the fans. Some even said that he should quit cricket and return to his father. This is when the former Indian captain's advice was helpful for him to get back.

Speaking of the incident, Siraj said that MS Dhoni advised him to ignore the outside noise as the same people will appreciate you later. "When I bowled those two beamers against KKR, people said 'quit cricket and go back and drive autos with your father'. There were so many such comments. And people don't see the struggle behind all this. But I remember when I first got selected how MS Dhoni told me to not listen to everything the people have to say about me. 'You do well today and they'll praise you and when you don't the same people will abuse you. So don't ever take it seriously.' And yes, the same people who trolled me incessantly back then say 'you're the best bowler bhai'. So, I know. I don't want anybody's opinion. I'm the same Siraj I was back then."