Can Arshdeep and Siraj pass the acid test in Americas?
spinners in India's T20 World Cup squad suggest that the Indian selectors are expecting slow turners in the Americas but have they missed a trick by picking only three pacers in the final 15? Also questionable is the choice of pacers.
Before the IPL began, Jasprit Bumrah was the lone certainty in the pace department while the other contenders had to prove themselves in the league.
As it turned out on Tuesday, the selectors chose to play safe and picked Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh to support the one-of-a-kind Bumrah in the ICC event beginning June 1.
The likes of Sandeep Sharma, Avesh Khan and T Natarajan, who all have impressed with their death bowling skills in this IPL, were ignored.
Both Siraj and Arshdeep, who have played 10 and 44 T20 Internationals respectively, have not had the best of times in the IPL but they have got the nod on the basis of their past performances for India.
The duo has the ability to swing the new ball but in the shortest format, how one handles batters' onslaught in the death overs is equally important if not more. That is one aspect of the game in which both Arshdeep and Siraj have been off the mark in the IPL.
Siraj has leaked run at 9.50 runs per over while Arshdeep has been unusually expensive, leaking 9.63 runs per over though he has 12 wickets to his name in nine games. He picked up 10 wickets during the 2022 T20 World Cup.
In the left-arm pacer's case, his form in the death overs has been worrying but the selectors have also considered his healthy record in national
