India pacer Mohammed Siraj is excited to play under new Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Faf du Plessis in the IPL 2022 season, which got underway on March 26.

It will be Siraj’s fourth year with RCB after he was retained by the franchise ahead of the IPL 2022 mega-auction.

The Bangalore-based franchise will open their IPL 15 campaign against Punjab Kings on Sunday (March 27) at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai.

Siraj has joined the team in Mumbai after completing his quarantine and he is looking forward to forging partnerships with news players.

“I was very excited for today. In fact, I couldn’t even sleep last night as the joy of finally joining my RCB family overwhelmed me," Siraj said in the latest episode of RCB Bold Diaries.

“I will be following my rhythm, and will be bowling accordingly. I do not want to rush things as after returning from the quarantine, it is almost next to impossible to put in my best efforts. That is why I will be focusing on my rhythm," he added.

Praising the new RCB captain Faf du Plessis, Siraj said: “We have a very good team and a brilliant captain in Faf. He has led his country for a while and that is a plus point for all of us."

For the IPL 2022 edition, RCB’s pace attack is comprised of Josh Hazlewood, Jason Behrendorff, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep among others.

Siraj said he is looking forward to the new bowling partnership.

“If we talk about our bowlers, the partnership between Harshal (Patel) and me was pretty fine in the last edition of the tournament. Hazlewood will be coming in and Akashdeep (Singh) is already there. It is a decent bonding and there is a good bench strength to support us too. It will be fun."

(With IANS inputs)