Mohammed Siraj’s absence from India’s ICC Champions Trophy squad raised a few eyebrows. BCCI opted to have a three-pronged pace attack comprised of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh.

Siraj wasn’t at his best in the Border Gavaskar Trophy but the 30-year-old spewed fire in the 2023 ODI World Cup. He took 14 wickets in the tournament playing a pivotal role on India’s road to the final.

Shami was included both in the T20 and ODI squad for the England series but wasn’t picked up in the first game at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. It remains to be seen how things pan out in the remaining games.

On the other hand, Bumrah is reportedly suffering from a back spasm and didn’t feature in the second innings in Sydney. His participation in the Champions Trophy is also in doubt as things stand.

However, Dinesh Karthik has backed Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar’s decision to drop Siraj for the ICC marquee event. While speaking on Cricbuzz he said, “I think it’s sad but fair. Who have they gone for? Bumrah, Shami, and Arshdeep, who has been phenomenal in white-ball cricket. But what would hurt him, I feel, is the fact that Harshit Rana has been picked ahead of him in the first couple of matches in the bilateral against England. Now, this is where Siraj will look and say, Look, I think I deserve better than that, and I am going to do better than that because he has got the skills. But for the moment, for the Champions Trophy, I think it’s a fair decision on Ajit Agarkar and Rohit Sharma’s part."

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja.

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