Siraj withdrawn from India's T20I fixtures against Ireland and England, replaced by GT teammate Prasidh; here's why

Senior pacer Mohammed Siraj's name has been withdrawn from India's squads for the upcoming T20I assignments in the United Kingdom, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India including Prasidh Krishna in his place. Siraj had been included in India's squads for a two-match T20I series against Ireland in Belfast as well as a five-match series in the same format in England in a multi-format white-ball tour that gets underway later this month.

Siraj was expected to lead the young attack, which includes uncapped Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi fast bowler Prince Yadav, in the absence of star pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who has been rested for the tour. The BCCI, however, has rested him as a "precautionary measure" keeping his workload management in mind.

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"Following discussions between the BCCI Medical Team and the Team Management, Siraj has been advised a period of rest as part of his workload management programme. The decision has been taken as a precautionary measure to ensure adequate recovery ahead of a long international season," read a statement from the Indian board.

Prasidh, Siraj's teammate at the Gujarat Titans that is captained by India Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill, had not been considered either for the UK tour or for the Asian Games, which takes place in Japan in September and will have Bumrah leading the attack.

Can Prasidh revive T20I career?

The 30-year-old, who had won the Purple Cap in the Indian Premier League last year, had made the last of his five T20I appearances in November 2023, around the same time as newly-appointed India T20 captain Shreyas Iyer's last appearance in the format.

The Karnataka seamer has been getting regular game time in Tests and ODIs under captain Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir and now has a chance to revive his T20I career in the trip to the British Isles later this summer.

Both Siraj and Prasidh were part of the Indian attack for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in New Chandigarh that the Gill-led hosts won by a record margin of an innings and 300 runs inside three days. Siraj, however, has been rested for the ODI series that gets underway later this week while Prasidh has been included.

India T20I squad for tour of Ireland and England: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vc), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi