BCCI reveals why Mohammed Siraj is rested from ODI series against West Indies

Mohammed Siraj recently won the Player of the Match in the second Test against West Indies.

India pacer Mohammed Siraj, who recently won his maiden Test Player of the Match award for his fifer in the second Test against the West Indies in Trinidad’s Port of Spain, has been rested for the upcoming ODI series which begins July 27, 2023.

Siraj played a lot of cricket for India in the past few months, especially Test cricket as he was part of the Indian team which played against Australia at home, and then played in the IPL 2023 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), picking 19 wickets for them.

He then moved to the Oval where India played Australia in the second World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final in which he picked a total of 5 wickets including a four-wicket haul in the first innings of Australia.

And now he played both the Tests against West Indies as the leader of the pace attack in the absence of Mohammad Shami.

As a result of his workload, the BCCI decided to rest him and he has flown back home with the rest of the Test contingent - R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat, and Navdeep Saini - after India's 1-0 series win.

Mohammed Siraj complained of a sore ankle, hence ruled out of the West Indies ODIs

Mohammed Siraj is not part of the India T20I squad and will also miss the ODIs series after the BCCI revealed that the pacer complained of a sore ankle after the second Test. As a result, the board rested the quick as a precautionary measure. The board has not sought a replacement for Siraj for the three ODIs.

“Mohd. Siraj has been released from Team India’s ODI squad ahead of the three-match series against the West Indies. The right-arm pacer has a sore ankle and as a precautionary measure has been advised to rest by the BCCI medical team. The team has not called for a replacement player for the ODI series, which commences on July 27, 2023, in Barbados,” BCCI said in a statement.

In Siraj's absence, Shardul Thakur becomes the most experienced seamer in India's squad, with 50 wickets in 35 matches. The other three seamers - Umran Malik, Jaydev Unadkat and Mukesh Kumar - have a combined 15 ODIs between them.