Mohammed Siraj is seemingly out of the favour of the selectors when it comes to white-ball formats. Once considered India’s go-to pacer in ODIs and T20Is, the Hyderabad star is now nowhere in the picture – be it IND vs ENG ODIs or the ICC Champions Trophy. Instead, he is now being considered as a backup option owing to the uncertainty over Bumrah and Shami’s fitness. The bowler’s fall from grace – from being world number 1 in ODIs to failing to find a spot in the squad for the marquee event – has rather been all of a sudden.
Why Siraj has fallen from being no.1 to becoming out of favour
Siraj was arguably one of India’s best bowlers in the ODIs. His best year in the 50-over format came in 2023 when he became the number 1 bowler on two occasions, that too in the ODI World Cup year. He finished with 44 wickets in 2023, arguably one of the best pacers for India. It was indeed a big feat to achieve, given that he was playing alongside giants like Shami and Bumrah. However, in 2024, Siraj devoted most of his attention (like the rest of his teammates) to T20Is and Tests. He only played three ODIs in the previous year, all of them against Sri Lanka in August.
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Cut to the latter half of 2024, Siraj was India’s second most overworked bowler. Indeed, he did a fairly decent job in playing second fiddle to Bumrah in the Test series against BAN, NZ and AUS. However, he was pretty much inconsistent with his performances. Besides, his inconsistency led to Bumrah bearing the burden of carrying the Indian bowling line-up on his back. With that being said, Siraj like the rest of the Indian Test team, was rested from IND vs ENG T20Is. Understandably, this was done perhaps to allow him to recover. But what came as a shock was his exclusion from the ODI series and the Champions Trophy squad.
Arshdeep Singh > Siraj
Instead, the selectors opted to pick Arshdeep Singh in the side for both the series. Apart from being a left-armed pacer, the Punjab bowler has been quite brilliant in the recent past – especially in white-ball formats. Such is the backing he received that skipper Rohit Sharma was forced to admit that he was much better than Siraj with the new ball. This means that the team management is no longer confident of Siraj delivering with the new ball.
By no means is Arshdeep’s ODI stats better than Siraj. But clearly, the latter isn’t in the books of the selectors any longer. The very fact that he is being considered as a back-up option explains that. From being a first-choice bowler to now not even the 3rd on the list, Siraj’s fall from grace has been quite the story. He wasn’t even considered to be among the traveling reserves as Avesh Khan was picked ahead of him.
Player | Mat | Wkts | Ave | Econ |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mohammed Siraj | 44 | 71 | 24.04 | 5.18 |
Arshdeep Singh | 8 | 12 | 24.08 | 5.05 |
But with the uncertainity over Bumrah and Shami’s fitness, Siraj could perhaps get a late entry into the CT 2025 squad. If he does, then will he able to turn around his fortunes? Only time will tell.
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