India's reliance on T20 WC winning formula with 4 spinners leaves Siraj out of Champions Trophy squad

Mumbai: India's emphasis on spin and concerns over Mohammed Siraj's effectiveness with the old ball led to his exclusion from the Champions Trophy squad on Saturday.

India announced their 15-member squad for the eight-team tournament to be played from February 19 with the Rohit Sharma-led side to play all their matches in Dubai.

While Indian selectors, led by Ajit Agarkar, gave a maiden ODI call-up to batting sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal, they left out seasoned pacer Siraj on the grounds that he lacked skills with the older ball.

With pitches in Dubai expected to not favour fast bowlers a lot, like it did in the Caribbean leg of last year’s T20 World Cup, India chose to stick with the four-spinners formula which includes Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar in the mix.

"We wanted to pick a squad where we have options of both, somebody to bowl with the new ball and somebody to bowl at the back end. Obviously, with (Jasprit) Bumrah missing, we're not sure," Rohit told the media here at the Wankhede Stadium after squad announcement for five T20Is, three ODIs against England and the Champions Trophy.

Bumrah is unavailable for the first two ODIs against England and is expected to return for the final match on February 12 at Ahmedabad. Harshit Rana has been named as Bumrah’s replacement for the first two ODIs in Nagpur and Cuttack.

While Rohit did acknowledge Siraj’s absence makes the squad look a little inexperienced, he provided the reasoning behind leaving out the pacer who was a member of their campaigns in last two ICC events in limited-overs cricket.

"We wanted Arshdeep (Singh) to come and play that role of bowling at the back end and (Mohammed) Shami, obviously we saw what he did with the new ball, and that is where we feel that Siraj's effectiveness comes down a little bit — if he's not going to take the new ball," Rohit explained.

"We discussed it at length about it and we are only taking three seamers there, because we wanted all the all-rounders (to be available) with us. It's an unfortunate thing that he (Siraj) has to miss out, but we had no option but to get the guys who can perform a certain role," the Indian skipper added.

Rohit said with the troika of pacers picked for the upcoming assignments, India have all bases covered.

"I personally feel that we have guys who can bowl with the new ball and be effective in the middle and then effective at the back end, so you need to cover all three facets of the game. With these three boys, I think we can do that,” he said.

India had picked a spin-heavy bowling attack for the T20 World Cup but it was the fast bowlers-- Bumrah (17 wickets), Arshdeep (15) and Hardik Pandya (11) who had bagged most of the wickets. Among spinners, Kuldeep (10) and Patel (9) were among the most successful.

Rohit hoped Arshdeep would come good in the ODIs too after being around in the T20I setup for a long time.

"Arshdeep hasn't played a lot of ODIs, but he's been around the white-ball circuit for a long time. I don't feel so uncomfortable saying that he's not experienced," he said.

“He's been there (for long) enough and he's bowled some tough overs in white-ball cricket. I definitely think he can handle that pressure and Shami is a stalwart of white-ball cricket and what he did recently in the (ODI) World Cup, was superb to watch.”

Rohit eventually conceded on these grounds it was unfortunate to have Siraj miss out. “Sometimes you have to do that, and in that, some players will miss out and it's very, very unlucky and unfortunate. But again, if you talk about everyone, you can't please everyone,” he said.