The enigma of Mohammed Siraj

With Mohammed Shami ruled out of contention for the Australia series, India have real concerns about the make-up of their pace line-up. While Jasprit Bumrah is a certainty and Akash Deep has impressed with his ability to hit the stumps, questions may arise over Mohammed Siraj’s form.

Siraj, who was India’s big breakthrough during their last tour of Australia with 13 wickets in his debut series, hit a rough patch in the Test season at home.

His six wickets in four games came at an expensive average of 42.33. This is far from ideal circumstances to enter Australia and Siraj will need a quick turnaround.

Should India be forced to look elsewhere, they will have the less experienced trio of pacers Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana and all-rounder Nitish Reddy to choose from. Of these three, only Prasidh has played more Tests with two games to his name.