Although Mohammed Siraj is known as a workhorse in Indian cricket, even he deserves some rest. He will never back down from any challenge, but the pace machine needs to be managed carefully and that’s what the BCCI is doing now. The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee has allowed him some respite after a fatiguing IPL season. Siraj, who was initially part of India’s T20I squad for the seven-T20I UK tour, has been replaced by Prasidh Krishna due to a workload management call.
Why no Siraj in the Indian T20I side?
The Indian T20 international side is in for exciting times ahead. Playing for the first time as T20 World Cup 2026 champions, the side will not be captained by Suryakumar Yadav but by Shreyas Iyer, the new T20I skipper. On Saturday (June 6), the BCCI named the squad for the upcoming two T20Is against Ireland and five T20Is against England.
Among the bowling group, Jasprit Bumrah was rested as the pace attack was formed by a returning Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Prince Yadav, and Arshdeep Singh. However, now, Siraj has been replaced by Prasidh. Although there were some questions on Siraj’s selection at the first place, the management has backtracked and has done a sensible thing by keeping Siraj away from T20Is.
He is already one of the main pacers in Tests and featured in a non-WTC Test against Afghanistan recently as well. While he is rested for IND vs AFG ODIs, he is likely to feature in the three ODIs against England that will be played on July 14, 16 and 19. Meanwhile, there has been no rest for the Hyderabadi pacer in 2026.
Siraj has played 6 List A matches, 18 T20 matches and three first-class matches in 2026. He played three ODIs against New Zealand, as many Vijay Hazare Trophy matches and a couple of Ranji Trophy games for Hyderabad in January.
India’s updated squad for Ireland and England T20Is
Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (VC), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Prasidh Krishna.
Siraj only played one game at the T20 World Cup after he replaced Harshit Rana in the side but stayed with the squad for every match. After just a 2-week break, Siraj turned out 17 times in 60 days for GT. That’s a brutal workload. At 32, his body needs rest. That’s why it is highly sensible for the BCCI to make him rest from the T20Is. After all, the next T20 World Cup is around 28 months away. You don’t need to burn Siraj out or create a pace attack around him this early.
However, Siraj may not rest all this while. With the Telangana Cricket Association organising the first-ever TG20, a premier domestic T20 franchise tournament, Siraj is expected to be one of the star players there. In fact, he even bought for INR 14 lac by the Warangal Warriors for a league that will be start on June 21, featuring 8 franchises competing in 32 matches over 21 action-packed day. While Siraj might not play the entire season, he is expected to show up for a few games since it will be the first-ever edition.
As far as Prasidh is concerned, he is one of the most improved pacers in T20 cricket. In last two IPL seasons, only Bhuvneshwar Kumar (45) has picked up more wickets than Prasidh’s 41. The GT pacer, who uses his height advantage, has a various slower balls up his sleeves and is known to bowl in the middle-overs, something not many pacers can boast about.
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