"Hyderabad is my home...": GT's Siraj ahead of clash against SRH in IPL 2025

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], April 6 : Ahead of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) home clash against Gujarat Titans (GT), GT pacer Mohammed Siraj opened up on playing in front of his home crowd where his life and cricketing journey started.
The IPL campaign of SRH, last year's trailblazers, has started on an extremely poor note. After a hard-hitting win over Rajasthan Royals (RR), they have slipped down to the bottom of the points table with three losses. Now, their task is cut out, to deal with a GT line-up featuring stars like skipper Shubman Gill, Jos Buttler and Siraj. With two wins and a loss, GT is at the third place in the points, as compared to SRH which is placed at the bottom.
Speaking in a video posted on IPL's official website, Siraj said, "Hyderabad is my home. I have been born and brought up here. Whenever I come here, it feels like home, my family and friends will come. When I will play in front of Hyderabad crowd, I would really feel excited."
So far, Siraj has taken five wickets in three games at an average of 21.40 for GT, with best figures of 3/19 against RCB coming at his former home stadium, M Chinnaswammy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Speaking about his approach to the game, he said, "My aim is when I come to the ground, my focus is on the ball for those 120 balls. Ball by ball."
On the challenge posed by an attacking SRH line-up featuring Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan at the top and Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma and Heinrich Klaasen in the middle, Siraj said, "The team combination (of GT) is great. Shubman Gill gives us a lot of freedom. There is Jos Buttler, the mystery spinner, Rashid Khan. SRH's batting line-up is very great. They have attacking batters and we must be clear about the plans. We are ready and excited for the battle."
Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kamindu Mendis, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Aniket Verma, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Simarjeet Singh, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari, Abhinav Manohar, Wiaan Mulder, Jaydev Unadkat, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa, Atharva Taide, Eshan Malinga, Sachin Baby
Gujarat Titans Squad: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Jos Buttler(w), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Arshad Khan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Washington Sundar, Jayant Yadav, Karim Janat, Kulwant Khejroliya, Gerald Coetzee, Manav Suthar, Kumar Kushagra, Gurnoor Brar, Nishant Sindhu.