Mohammed Siraj replaces injured Harshit Rana in India's squad

Mohammed Siraj will replace Harshit Rana in India's squad for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, starting on February 7. Rana was officially ruled out after sustaining a knee injury during India's warm-up fixture against South Africa in Navi Mumbai on February 4.

Rana underwent scans following the game and, after consultations with a specialist, the BCCI medical team deemed him unfit to take part in the tournament.

India had a decision to make on his replacement given Rana also brought batting abilities lower down the order with captain Suryakumar Yadav suggesting they'll consider different options in his press conference earlier in the evening.

"(That it's a) big blow is obvious. If you make a squad of 15 players. You make the squad with a lot of combinations in mind. We made it with that in mind. And if he's not available for us going forward, then we'll set other combinations," Suryakumar said.

"But we have enough players and combinations against all the teams that we can make for the tournament. But if we miss him, we'll definitely miss him.

"We'll see which fast bowlers have done really well for the last 1 or 2 years. And who is a bowler who can bat as well. But there's no hard and fast rule that he has to bat. Because if you're expecting someone at 9 or 10 to come and hit a six. Then what will you do with the top 8 people? What will you tell them? But we'll see. But we do have a few options, we'll pick the best one."

Eventually, they picked Siraj, who last played a T20I on July 30, 2024 - against Sri Lanka in Pallekele. The 31-year-old Siraj, who was most recently in action in the Ranji Trophy leading Hyderabad, will join the squad in an hour's time.

India's updated World Cup squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (VC), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Washington Sundar and Mohammed Siraj.