3 reasons why India dropping Mohammed Siraj from their squad for Champions Trophy 2025 is the wrong move

Ace Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj surprisingly missed out on the squad for the Champions Trophy 2025 tournament. The BCCI announced the Indian squad for the mega event on January 18. While the squad featured the injured Jasprit Bumrah, the returning Mohammed Shami and T20 specialist Arshdeep Singh, there was no place for Siraj in the pace department.

It is pertinent to note that Mohammed Siraj was an integral part of India's 2023 Asia Cup-winning squad. He also played a major role in the team's success in the 2023 ODI World Cup.

In this listicle, we will look at three reasons why India dropping Siraj from the ODI squad for Champions Trophy 2025 was the wrong move.

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#1 Mohammed Siraj was the No. 1 ODI bowler not long ago

Mohammed Siraj was the No. 1 bowler in the ICC ODI Rankings from September 20 to November 14 in 2023. Since then, India have played only four ODI matches.

It is hard to understand how a fast bowler can go from being at the top of the ICC Rankings to not even getting a place in the 15-man squad of his country's squad for an ICC tournament in the same format just four matches later. Notably, Siraj took at least one wicket in each of those four games. Still, the selectors did not pick him in the Champions Trophy 2025 squad.

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#2 Siraj has considerable experience of playing in the UAE

Although Pakistan is the official host of the ICC Champions Trophy tournament, India will play their matches in the United Arab Emirates. Mohammed Siraj has considerable experience of playing cricket in the UAE, having played for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2020 and 2021.

Siraj produced some fine bowling performances in the UAE during those two tournaments. That experience could have been handy for India in their upcoming Champions Trophy matches.

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#3 The trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Siraj destroyed batting lineups together in 2023

Fast bowlers generally hunt in pairs, but the Indian pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj supported each other so brilliantly that the other teams had no answers to their bowling in the 2023 ODI World Cup. In all, the trio took 58 wickets in 11 matches.

India defeated each team at least once in that mega event, and now, seven out of those nine teams will participate in the Champions Trophy 2025.

There haven't been too many changes in the batting departments of other nations. Hence, it would have sense to continue with the trio of Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah as the first-choice pacers, with Arshdeep Singh as a backup option. However, Siraj has been ignored for the Champions Trophy.

The date for submitting the final squad is February 11. It will be interesting to see if India make any changes to their squad and bring Siraj back into the mix.