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India pacer Mohammed Siraj is unlikely to play in the second T20I of the three-T20I series in Ranchi. Siraj injured his left hand trying to stop a boundary on follow-through in the final over off Mitchell Santner’s bat. The blow left Siraj bleeding as it split the webbing.
After getting patched-up by the physio on the field, the Hyderabad-born fast bowler completed the rest of the over but we may see him getting replaced by Avesh Khan or Harshal Patel in the second T20I.
Fielding will be main concern considering Siraj’s nature of injury. The left hand is unlikely to heal in time for the second T20I. Also, we may see him getting ruled out of the T20I series altogether considering that the third T20I will be played on November 21.
Despite the injury, Siraj gave just six more runs in the over including two byes and took the wicket of Rachin Ravindra. Later, in the dugout, skipper Rohit Sharma was disappointed with Siraj putting his hand trying to stop the delivery on follow through as it was hit firmly by Santner. Rohit gave him a friendly slap on the back of the head for getting injured in that way as he saw the replay of delivery in slow motion on the big screen.
Earlier in the innings, Siraj did not make an impact as he conceded 34 runs in his first three overs including a 16-run over. In the second T20I we may see Harshal making his T20I debut after winning purple cap for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL 2021 with 32 wickets. On the other hand, Avesh was the highest wicket-taker for Delhi Capitals (DC) in the same edition of IPL.
