Mohammed Siraj’s return to the Ranji Trophy involved a back-breaking day against Vidarbha in Nagpur where he managed only one wicket from bowling 18 overs.
Siraj, who was part of the Indian team in the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, returned to domestic cricket following the BCCI mandate for players to feature for their state teams in order to be eligible for central contracts and national team selection.
The 30-year-old toiled his way with the ball all morning as he managed to get seven maidens and one key wicket of Harsh Dubey who blasted 65 off 46 balls in the lower-middle order. However, his economical spells helped other Hyderabad bowlers to get among wickets as Rakshan Readdi and Aniketh Reddy got three wickets each to Vidarbha to 190 all out in the first innings.
Siraj had seen very little domestic cricket since making his international debut in 2017 and turning into an all-format player for India with his Test debut in the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21. His last Ranji Trophy was also a group stage clash against Vidarbha in the 2020 season where he claimed a wicket in each innings. Siraj had picked up 19 wickets from nine innings in that season for Hyderabad in the 2019-20 season.
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The ongoing match against confirmed quarterfinalists Vidarbha is a dead rubber as Hyderabad are already out of the race for knockouts with 16 points from six matches.
Being back on the pitch is likely to be a good thing for Siraj, who was recently dropped from India’s 15-player squad for the Champions Trophy 2025 next month. The Hyderabadi bowler has been a fixture in the side since his ODI debut in 2019 and even picked up 14 wickets from 11 matches in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Siraj has always played a strong supporting role to the likes of Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah in the ODIs. He had also stepped up for the team on big occasions, with his 6-21 against Sri Lanka in the 2023 Asia Cup final a fine example.
He is India’s third best bowler in ODIs since 2019 behind Shami and Bumrah with 71 wickets in 44 matches, the same share as Bumrah in that six-year period. Siraj’s average of 24.03 is not far away from Shami’s superb 21.02 and slightly better than Bumrah’s 26.34.
With the new ball in ODIs, Siraj has proven himself as a workhorse averaging a wicket every 25 balls in the opening powerplay and claiming 41 wickets in the phase of fielding restrictions. He has also bowled 177 overs since 2019, the most overs with the new ball for India, with an excellent average of 18.
Dropping Siraj for the Champions Trophy has garnered a variety of reactions from pundits who have backed him to play in the competition if Bumrah doesn’t recover in time. Former India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik felt that it will be a good learning experience for Siraj, though he empathised with the Hyderabadi pacer over the snub.
Former India opening batter Aakash Chopra went a step ahead and said that Siraj will definitely play in the showpiece event as the fitness of returning Shami was uncertain and Bumrah is unlikely to recover from the lower-back injury he suffered in Australia.
“So far, Shami hasn’t played a match (in the first two T20Is against England), and Bumrah will play maybe one ODI. But last year, during the same months, we saw multiple times that Bumrah was selected but then pulled out… he wasn’t completely fit and available. I don’t know their status (both Bumrah’s and Shami’s), Information isn’t coming through right now… but Siraj will somehow manage to find a way into the Champions Trophy,” Chopra had said on his YouTube channel.
While the permutations and predictions of the international squad are going on, Siraj is putting in the same tough work in domestic cricket as well.
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