HYDERABAD, Jan 21: Mohammed Siraj, one of the heroes of the triumphant Indian team, headed straight to his father’s grave after he landed in Hyderabad.
Siraj, who decided to stay put in Australia with the team and miss his father’s last rites, drove straight from Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport to the graveyard and paid his last respects to his departed father Mohammed Ghouse.
It was the end of a two-month long wait for the speedster, who was India’s top performer with the ball during the trip. Siraj’s 53-year-old father, who was an auto driver, had died on November 20 due to a lung ailment.
This was just a week after his son landed in Australia with the Indian team on his maiden tour. He was given the option of returning home but he decided otherwise and broke down thinking about him when the national anthem was played before the Sydney Test.
He made his Test debut in the second match in Melbourne and finished the Border-Gavaskar series with 13 wickets – the most by any Indian bowler. (PTI)