Mohammed Siraj has been officially announced as the replacement for the injured Harshit Rana for the T20 World Cup. This comes after the latter had been ruled out of the tournament due to joint tenderness. Harshit had showed signs of discomfort while bowling in the warm-up match against South Africa and had been taken off the field after bowling just over. He was seen clutching his right knee and appeared to be in a lot of pain before walking off.
Siraj has now replaced Harshit from India's squad for the tournament. He hasn't featured for India in T20Is since July, 2024 and had been completely sidelined from the format under Gautam Gambhir. The 31-year-old has a decent amount of experience in T20Is and has played 16 games for India so far, clinching a total of 14 wickets.
Harshit had bowled just one over in the match against South Africa and had conceded 16 runs in that. The 24-year-old had showed discomfort and had pulled out from his delivery stride on two separate occasions during the over. His condition didn't seem to be great and it was expected that he would not participate in India's opening few games of the tournament, but he ended up being ruled out from the entire tournament.
When asked about Harshit's condition, India skipper Suryakumar Yadav had said that his absence will be a big setback for the team, adding that their priority would be to replace him with a proper bowling option and that is exactly what the team did.
"We have the XI for tomorrow. It is a blow because when we pick a squad we think about combinations. But we still have enough players and combinations. Will be a blow if he is out. Will see who are the fast bowlers who has been bowling well in the last one or two years. May be someone who can bat as well but that’s not a priority because we don’t expect a bowler to bat down at that number because what will the other batters do then," Suryakumar said in the pre-match press-conference.
India's squad for T20 World Cup: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh