After missing out on the Indian squad in the Champions Trophy, coming back to the Indian team is not in the mind of Mohammed Siraj who was last featured in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia and now remains focused on the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the Gujarat Titans. Reflecting on being snubbed for the Champions Trophy, which India went on to win, Siraj does not want to delve into the matters that are out of his control and wants to put his time and attention into his performances instead. “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,” he shared as quoted by PTI. “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. The time away from international cricket has certainly given Siraj the time needed to work on his fitness and bowling and also take some rest ahead of the upcoming campaign. “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,” he shared. “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,” he added He is particularly pleased to work with the former Indian cricketer-turned-coach, Ashish Nehra who has built a fine reputation for himself after his association with the Titans and Siraj will be banking on this partnership to improve his bowling. “As a fast bowler, Ashu bhai has done a lot for Indian cricket, he was a genuine match winner for the country. I want to learn some things from him that I feel will improve me as a bowler,” he commented. “It’s very important for me to add those new skill sets to my bowling such as bowling stumps to stumps line and bowling at the right length,” Siraj noted. GT will begin their campaign with a home game against the Punjab Kings on March 25 (Tuesday) later this month.