ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Virat Kohli's friend humiliates Mohammed Siraj, calls him 'unsettled'

Mohammed Siraj's absence from India's Champions Trophy 2025 squad raised a few eyebrows initially. However, Siraj's former RCB teammate AB de Villiers has backed the selectors' decision to drop the pacer citing his diminishing returns.

De Villiers gave the example of the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy where Siraj was inconsistent and looked unsettled. However, he backed the 30-year-old quick to make a strong comeback in international cricket.

Also read: ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Rashid Latif takes shot at India, urges Pakistan to focus on playing 'attacking cricket'

AB de Villiers supports the selectors' decision to drop Mohammed Siraj

While speaking on his YouTube channel, AB de Villiers spoke about Mohammed Siraj's absence from India's squad for ICC Champions Trophy 2025. He feels that Siraj wasn't in great form with the ball and the Indian bowling line-up will not be affected by his unavailability.

"I don’t think (Mohammed) Siraj’s absence will affect the Indian bowling unit. He’s looked unsettled for quite some time. It might be due to the Australia tour, he bowled a lot of overs and gave his complete energy," De Villiers said.

"He did well sometimes but not enough the other times. I think he is unable to hold the ball strongly. I am disappointed that he didn’t find a place. He’s an incredible bowler, I am convinced he will be back," he backed Siraj to make a strong comeback.

Both AB de Villiers and Mohammed Siraj have played for RCB together during the former's last few seasons as a professional player. De Villiers retired from IPL after the 2021 season of the tournament. Meanwhile, Siraj will play for Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025 after RCB failed to sign him.

India's injury woes before Champions Trophy

In the absence of Mohammed Siraj, the onus will be on the fast bowling duo of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Arshdeep Singh to carry India's bowling attack. However, the bowling attack faces some injury concerns before the Champions Trophy.

Bumrah suffered a back spasm in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and hasn't played any match since. Although he has been selected in India's squad for the Champions Trophy, his availability is not yet confirmed.

On the other hand, Mohammed Shami is returning from a long injury lay-off. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav is also returning from an injury while the fast bowling allrounder Hardik Pandya hasn't played much 50-over cricket recently.

AB de Villiers backs India to win

AB de Villiers also backed India to go all the way in the upcoming Champions Trophy. The former South African cricketer feels that India is a batting-heavy team that is needed to win big tournaments.

"I think this is a tournament-winning team. First of all, their matches will be held in UAE. This is because they’ve picked a batting-heavy team. It’s because to win big ICC tournaments, you need strong batting team," De Villiers said.

"We’ve always seen Australia and in the World Cup, they batted deep and won the match. For example – Glenn Maxwell’s double century against Afghanistan," he noted.

India have excellent depth in their batting department with a total of four all-rounders in the squad. Hardik Pandya is the only fast-bowling allrounder while Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar are the spin-bowling allrounders in the team.