Gautam Gambhir unhappy with Ishant Sharma’s inclusion at Siraj’s cost

“Yes I would have picked Siraj. The reason is that Ishant hasn’t played any red-ball cricket for a very long time," Gambhir said.

Hyderabad: The Team India selection for the first Test against England, that got underway in Chennai on Friday, surprised quite a few former cricketers.

While in-form Mohmammed Siraj, who played a key role in India’s big win in Australia recently, made way for Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep’s exclusion also raised quite a few questions. Former Indian opener Gambhir was a bit annoyed with the selection.

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“Yes I would have picked Siraj. The reason is that Ishant hasn’t played any red-ball cricket for a very long time. Straight IPL and after IPL he has got injured and then he has played only T20 cricket. It’s not like you have got the third seamer in your ranks and you can actually just go on to bowl 12-13 overs a day. You might have to bowl 15-16 overs plus it’s always easy to bowl in T20 cricket but not in red-ball cricket where you gotta make things happen,” Gautam Gambhir said.

“You might have to play three seamers with the pink ball at Motera. So I would have definitely built him for Motera or probably for the second Test match and gone with Siraj because Siraj is coming after such a fabulous tour and he has bowled such long spells in Australia as well,” Gambhir added.

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