File photo of Mohammed Siraj.© AFP
As the second leg of the Ranji Trophy starts on January 23, the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has said that India fast-bowler Mohammed Siraj is likely to be available for the match against Vidarbha on January 30. In the Elite Group B table of the Ranji Trophy, Hyderabad are at sixth place with nine points from five matches. They will resume their Ranji Trophy campaign when they host second-ranked Himachal Pradesh at home on January 23. Jagan Mohan Rao, the President of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), told IANS that he didn’t know the reason behind Siraj not being available for the game on January 23. Rao added that there’s likely chance of Siraj playing the next Ranji Trophy game for Hyderabad, where they will be up against table-toppers Vidarbha, starting on January 30 in Nagpur.
Siraj wasn’t picked in India’s squad for the three ODIs against England and the ICC Champions Trophy. In ODI matches from 2022 to 2024, Siraj has picked 71 wickets at an average of just 22.97, the most by an Indian pacer in this period.
In place of him, the Indian team drafted in left-arm fast-bowler Arshdeep Singh, alongside Jasprit Bumrah (subject to fitness), Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana (included only for England ODIs). Siraj had recently picked 20 wickets at an average of 31.15 across all five Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
As of now, the upcoming round of the Ranji Trophy will see Ravindra Jadeja (Saurashtra), Rishabh Pant (Delhi), Shubman Gill (Punjab), Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal (both Mumbai) turn out for their respective state teams, while KL Rahul and Virat Kohli are out due to varied niggles.
The array of Indian players making themselves available for the Ranji Trophy comes after the BCCI apparently introduced a 10-point policy document making participation in domestic cricket mandatory, and that non-compliance could impact international selection and central contract renewals.
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