Indian cricketer Mohammed Siraj receives Thar SUV gifted by Anand Mahindra

Indian fast bowler Mohammed Siraj has thanked industrialist Anand Mahindra for gifting him a Mahindra Thar SUV. The cricketer's mother and his elder brother Ayan Mirxa received the SUV on his behalf as he was away for IPL duty.

The cricketer took to Instagram to share a picture of his family members receiving the Thar and wrote, "Words fail me at this moment. There is nothing I can say or do that will adequately express how I feel about your beautiful gift. For now, I’ll just say a big fat thank you."

Siraj is one of the six cricketers who were promised a Thar SUV by Mahindra as an acknowledgement of their performance in Test series Down Under win in Australia earlier this year. Siraj emerged as one of the prominent newcomers who helped India dig its heels and attain victory in the series against Australia.

Shortly after the series Down Under, Mahindra had announced that he would gift a Thar each to "six young men (who) made their debuts in the recent historic series". The other cricketers whom the industrialist included in the list are Shubman Gill, T Natarajan, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini and Washington Sundar.

Mahindra had taken to Twitter to announce his acknowledgement for the young cricketers. He had written, "Theirs are true ‘Rise’ stories; overcoming daunting odds in the pursuit of excellence... It gives me great personal pleasure to gift each of these debutants an All New THAR SUV on my own account—at no expense to the company."

Last week, cricketer T Natarajan received this Thar and expressed his gratitude for Mahindra on Twitter. He wrote, "As I drive the Mahindra Thar today, I feel immense gratitude towards Anand Mahindra for recognising my journey & for his appreciation."

The 2020 Thar SUV was launched on October 2 last year and also passed the safety crash test conducted by global safety rating agency Global NCAP with four-star ratings.