Published: Dec 27, 2024, 05:09 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 27, 2024, 05:09 PM (IST)
Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar gave a brutal verdict on Mohammed Siraj’s recent poor performances and called for him to be dropped from the Indian team after his poor displays in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series.
Siraj has not been at his best in the series so far, picking up 13 wickets in 7 innings. His poor performances have only ended up giving extra burden on Jasprit Bumrah’s shoulders.
Gavaskar believes the right-arm quick needs to be told he is being dropped rather than being rested.
“I think Siraj, perhaps, needs a little bit of a break. In the sense, I am not saying a break, he needs to be told that he is left out of the team for non-performance. There has to be a situation where you can’t beat around the bush,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
“You need to be brutally upfront and say ‘look, your performance has not been up to scratch, and therefore you are being dropped.’ When you start talking about ‘rest,’ players get wrong ideas. They feel they don’t need to up their game,” Gavaskar added.
Gavaskar believes that Siraj should either be replaced by Harshit Rana or Prasidh Krishna in the fifth Test which will be held in Sydney. While Rana did feature in the first 2 Tests, Krishna hasn’t featured in the series at all.
“But I think Siraj needs to be told ‘Look, you are not bowling as well as we expected you to on pitches that have been helpful’. That is something that needs to be told. If you want to make two changes. Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana to support Jasprit Bumrah. By all means, do that,” Gavaskar said.
