India's squad for the Champions Trophy was announced on Saturday (January 18), where they left out fast bowler Mohammed Siraj.
On Saturday, India announced their 15-member squad for the 2025 Champions Trophy after a long wait as captain Rohit Sharma and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar were involved in a lengthy meeting before the press conference.
Apart from the usual suspects in Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, the squad features four spin-bowling options, three of whom can bat providing more depth to the batting, as well as the left-handed batting duo of Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Siraj, however, has been dropped.
Siraj has been a mainstay in India’s bowling line-up across formats over the last three years, particularly in ODIs, but was ignored from the 15-member squad with the management favouring Arshdeep Singh as the third seamer instead.
Siraj's ODI dominance
The Hyderabad-born fast bowler has taken 47 wickets in ODIs since the start of 2023 which included an impressive 2023 World Cup campaign where he picked 14 wickets in 11 matches at an economy rate of 5.68.
Since the start of 2022, Siraj has taken 71 ODI wickets, the third most in the format after Adam Zampa who has proven to be undroppable from Australia’s white-ball squads.
Why then, has he been overlooked for the second-biggest tournament in the format after the World Cup?
