“I don’t want to put pressure on myself” - Mohammed Siraj breaks silence on being dropped from 2025 Champions Trophy squad

Team India pacer Mohammed Siraj has finally broken his silence on the 2025 Champions Trophy snub. The Men in Blue went with Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, and Harshit Rana as the three frontline seamers for the ICC event.

Siraj was also not considered for the three-match England ODI series that took place just before the Champions Trophy. His last ODI appearance came in July 2024 against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

As he gears up for the new IPL season, Siraj was asked about the Champions Trophy snub. The 31-year-old responded via The Indian Express:

“Look, selection is not in my hands. I have only a cricket ball in my hands and I wanted to do as much as I can with that. I don’t want to put pressure on myself thinking about selection, as I want to focus on my performance."

Mohammed Siraj was roped in by the Gujarat Titans for a whopping ₹12.25 crore at the mega auction after the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) released him.

The right-arm pacer admitted the tour of England and the Asia Cup are at the back of mind, but stressed that his focus is on IPL 2025.

“Yeah aș a player, it remains in the back of your mind that there is a tour of England and the Asia Cup but I don’t really seriously think about it, as my focus is on IPL and doing well for Gujarat Titans and helping them win another IPL title,” he added.

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"I have worked really hard with how to bowl with new and old balls" - Mohammed Siraj on how he used the break

Mohammed Siraj's last appearance for India came earlier in January during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, his last competitive game came in the Ranji Trophy when he turned up for Hyderabad for a game against Vidarbha that got underway on January 30.

Since then, Siraj has been away from competitive cricket and the pacer asserted that he used this period to work on his fitness and bowling skills.

“I have been playing for some years now, and usually, we don’t get that much rest. But now that I have got some time off, I have worked on my fitness and bowling skills. I have worked really hard with how to bowl with new and old balls, and I wanted to work on my slower balls and yorkers. This time I really used to work on those areas, and let’s how things pan out for me in this IPL,” Siraj said via the aforementioned report.

Mohammed Siraj will likely partner with Kagiso Rabada and lead Gujarat Titans' pace attack. The Indian seamer will look to be at his best as he aims to return to India's T20 fold ahead of the Asia Cup, which will be played in a T20 format.