Sharjah: Chirag Suri, the toast of UAE cricket, celebrated his call-up in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with his family and friends who turned up to congratulate him on Monday night. He cut a specially designed cake, which had his name and logo of Gujarat Lions, with his father Bobby Suri and mother Gauri, who had supported him to become a cricketer.
Speaking to Gulf News after the celebration, 22-year-old Suri said: “I am overjoyed. Frankly I cannot express my happiness. My parents and I were in tears when I got picked. It’s a big boost to my career. For me, playing in the IPL was a dream I always cherished.”
Suri’s father Bobby is an avid cricketer and even now plays in the Dubai Cricket Council’s Mammoths League. He took Suri when he was just a six-year-old boy to enrol him in a cricket academy.
Suri blossomed into a good cricketer by scoring heavily for his first school Modern High School and then Repton School. After graduating to college, he repeatedly won the best batsman awards in the inter-collegiate tournaments in UAE. His match-winning knocks steered Heriot Watt University, from where he took his Bachelors’ degree in Business Management, to many tournament victories.
Suri, in an interview three years ago after winning the best batsman in inter-collegiate tournament, had remarked that his dream was to play in the IPL and when in 2014 he got to play for UAE in practice matches against Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians, he produced brilliant knocks.
“The IPL being held here in 2014 was a nice opportunity for me. I was only 19 years old then and got to play the IPL’s finest bowlers like Tim Southee, Pravin Tambe and Shane Watson. I fully utilised it,” said Suri, who immediately on getting picked for IPL looked at the big names he would play with in the Suresh Raina-led Gujarat Lions team .
“I am sure the IPL experience will help me in a big way. I want to carry all what I learn from IPL here and perform very well for UAE. For Gujarat Lions we have three great openers in Brendon McCullum, Jason Roy and Dwayne Smith. It is a great opportunity for me being an opener to be with them, watch them play, and learn the traits that have made them great players,” said Suri, who idolises Virat Kohi.
“I am a fan of Kohli. The biggest boost for me will be getting to see Virat Kohli during the IPL and be in a tournament in which he is playing,” said Suri, who is thankful to Emirates Cricket Board who had talks with some of the IPL franchises about him. “The ECB suggested my name and put in a good word for me. To get considered by an IPL team itself is a huge honour,” he said.
