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Indian fans at the MCG shouted, ‘DSP, DSP’ when Virat Kohli asked them to cheer for Mohammed Siraj.
India vs Australia: Virat Kohli blows a kiss (representative photo, AP)
Former India captain Virat Kohli came to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday with his leadership mode turned on. Apart from helping the bowlers and being at his aggressive-best, he also kept the crowd on their toes by regularly engaging with them.
In one instance, he walked toward an Indian section of the fans and gestured for them to cheer. When the fans sang his name, he pointed towards Mohammed Siraj, asking them to get behind the fast bowler instead and the fans responded with shouts of, ‘DSP, DSP’. Kohli turned back and continued asking them to raise their voice as Siraj took his run-up.
A video of the incident has now gone viral on social media, watch it here:
‘DSP’ has become a fan-favorite nickname for Siraj in India. He was awarded the position of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) on October 11, 2024. It happened on the direction of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who asked his officials to offer Siraj a government job and allot a plot of land on July 9, 2024 for winning the 2024 men’s T20 World Cup.
After a tough first innings, Siraj bowled with a lot of heart and precision at the MCG on Sunday. He took three of the first nine wickets in the Australian innings, all important ones of Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja.
Kohli had also played a role in Siraj’s wicket of Smith. In another viral video, the Delhi batter can be seen asking him to bowl from wide of the to the Australian, which worked wonders as Smith ended up edging an innocuous full ball behind the wicket.
The wickets came as a huge relief to not just India but Siraj’s personal career prospects as well. Many, including former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, had been calling for India to drop him and be ‘brutally honest’ about his ‘non-performance’, despite the pacer being India’s second-highest wicket-taker of the series even then.
Now with three more to his name, his tally has gone to 16, the third-best in the series, only behind Jasprit Bumrah’s 29 and Pat Cummins’ 17 wickets.
- Location :
Melbourne, Australia
