IND vs SA LIVE: Ashish Nehra- Mohd Siraj- Former India cricketer Ashish Nehra has chosen Mohd Siraj as the third pacer for the upcoming Boxing Day Test starting Sunday. He feels Siraj can be picked ahead of 100+ Test veteran Ishant Sharma as the former did fairly well in his last outing in Mumbai. He feels that the youngster should pair automatic picks in form of Jasprit Bumrah & Mohammad Shami. Follow India Tour of South Africa live updates on InsideSport.IN
IND vs SA LIVE: Ashish Nehra picks Mohd Siraj as his third pacer for Boxing Day Test
“Look, I feel Bumrah and Shami are the two automatic choices in India’s pace attack,” Nehra told Telegraph India.
“Talking of the third pacer, Mohammed Siraj could be the guy. Ishant (Sharma) was injured and left out of the second Test versus New Zealand (in Mumbai), while Siraj did fairly well in that game. It also depends on the team management’s thought process and game plan, and who’s looking sharper at nets,” he added.
Siraj
- Mohd Siraj has proved himself in Australia & England with South Africa as his final frontier.
- He has returned with 33 wickets in 10 matches which features a five-wicket haul in Australia and a four-wicket haul in England.
- He took 13 wickets in 3 matches in Australia and 14 wickets in 4 matches in England.
Ishant Sharma
- On the other hand, 105 Test veteran Ishant Sharma is struggling with form, He even failed to pick wickets in the last two outings.
- Since the success in West Indies, Ishant’s form has taken a backseat and is unable to lead by example. His last fifer was against New Zealand in 2020.
- Going by his recent form, Ishant is likely to be benched by Team management.
Can Umesh Yadav get a look in?
Nehra further stated that Umesh Yadav in the mix can also be considered besides Siraj. “The good thing is the number of options India have as far as their pace battery is concerned. They even have someone like Umesh (Yadav), who’s super-experienced now with the number of Test matches (51) he has played so far. So it’s a good situation the team finds itself to be in,” he stated further.
Meanwhile, allrounder Shardul Thakur could also be a part of the pace attack.
India’s Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.
Standby Players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla.
IND vs SA LIVE: Ashish Nehra picks Mohd Siraj as his third pacer for Boxing Day Test
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