One of the certain problems that the India Cricket Team has been encountering is regarding Mohammed Siraj. The ace pacer has been a proper shadow of his past and is unable to bring out the spark that he exuberates. Siraj’s form has been dipping over the last season and playing in the Border Gavaskar Trophy hasn’t been of much help.
5 wickets in Perth and 4 wickets in Adelaide might be decent enough for the stats, but what matters most is the impact. Mohammed Siraj is nowhere close to turning the game on its heel like Jasprit Bumrah does. In T20Is he is not as lethal as Arshdeep Singh. And now the pertinent question is – Has India missed out on a trick in playing Siraj for the Gabba Test?
India lacks a left-arm pacer in their ranks in Test cricket. While Arshdeep Singh is not a part of the red-ball setup yet, India does have provisions in the form of Prasidh Krishna. Jasprit Bumrah naturally leads the side and the third pacer comes in the form of Harshit Rana or Akash Deep when the situation demands.
But Siraj as the second pacer in the team has started to raise questions. His inability to pick wickets in crucial junctures of the game and over-aggression (i.e. Travis Head sendoff) adds more concerns for the player.
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Who should start instead?
Every team has a good left-arm pacer in their mixes which works wonders. The only expectation of this is India in Test cricket. However, India should go and utilize Prasidh Krishna on a bigger scale. His tall stature makes him bowl at a higher trajectory which can greatly work in the Aussie ground conditions.
As things stand, Mohammed Shami is highly unlikely to be a part of Team India. With no Shami in the team, it is high time that Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir give a chance to Prasidh Krishna as the second pacer. Then, a third pacer in the team can be selected according to what the team needs based on ground conditions.
