Mohammed Siraj bowled a fine spell.
Mohammed Siraj has always been a big believer, and things fall in place for him against all odds. The same happened in the T20 World Cup 2026, where he was a last-minute entrant due to an unfortunate injury to Harshit Rana in the warm-up fixture.
As if that wasn’t enough, Jasprit Bumrah’s absence from the opening game due to illness paved the way for his surprise inclusion in the playing XI. Siraj grabbed his chances with both hands, bowling a decisive spell of 3/29, the best figures for India in the game, to help his team overcome a scare.
Following the match’s conclusion, he revealed that he planned to spend a long holiday in Germany and watch a Real Madrid match in Spain in La Liga. Then, Siraj wanted to spend some time with his family during Ramzan before linking with Gujarat Titans (GT) for IPL 2026; however, a call from Suryakumar Yadav and Pragyan Ojha altered his plans altogether.
“Then suddenly, Surya bhai (skipper Suryakumar Yadav) called me. He said, ‘Get ready, pack your bag, and come.’ I said, ‘Surya bhai, don’t joke, because this is not going to happen.’ He said, ‘I’m telling you the truth – get ready.’ As soon as he hung up, I got a call from (Pragyan) Ojha, the national selector. So suddenly, I got shocking news.”
Mohammed Siraj’s inclusion was mighty surprising, given he wasn’t in India’s T20I plans before. His last outing in this format came in July 2024, with the team limiting themselves to specific pacers since the end of the previous T20 World Cup 2026.
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However, he still got the nod, solely due to his skills and previous experience bowling in the powerplay and death overs. The options were limited for India; as strong as their batting lineup looks, with multiple backups ready to come in, they can’t boast the same depth in the pace department, even in T20Is.
Since the end of the previous T20 World Cup, India have given 25 matches to Arshdeep Singh, 17 to Bumrah, and nine to Rana. Other pacers who had some match experience under their belt are Avesh Khan (5), Khaleel Ahmed (4), Mukesh Kumar (3), and Mayank Yadav (3).
Clearly, the preparations were below par, and India didn’t care to try as many options as possible, even when those pacers hardly played the other formats as well. That they want more and more all-rounders also played a role, with the likes of Shivam Dube getting more exposure with the ball as pace-bowling all-rounders.
Prasidh Krishna could have been another option, especially since he was the leading wicket-taker in IPL 2025 and was a like-for-like replacement for Harshit Rana due to his hit-the-deck abilities. However, he can be vulnerable and bowl erratic lengths, as his T20I economy of 11 suggests, and can’t bring the same security in the back end of the innings.
Other leading pacers from IPL 2025, such as Vaibhav Arora and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, are nowhere close to international cricket, unlike Mohammed Siraj, who at least plays the other two formats. Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh remain first-choice pacers, but if a third option had to be picked, it had to be Siraj, and so he was included.
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