~snip`.
Siraj didn't do anything that costed India the match, it wasn't his day and didn't get any wicket but it was alright, it was largely batters fault and had India won the test we wouldn't be arguing about Siraj here at all. You can argue same about Bumrah too that his place could have been also offered to spinners but you don't cause he took wickets. Had Siraj was the one who got wicket and Bumrah came out empty ended, I'm sure you would be saying Bumrah's spot was waste.
I don't think you can blame Siraj for Jadeja's injury either, these things just happen, look at KL Rahul, he was included in squad as sole batter, he had no wicket keeping duty in the game, yet he was injured.
True, in hindsight, one can argue many reasons for the defeat but the main reason was a timid approach from the Indians. India has won plenty of matches where 2-3 bowlers were underbowled be it seamer or even in some cases spinners.
- Poor and defensive captaincy from Rohit.
- Batters throwing away their wickets in the first inning, we shouldn't forget 5 batters got out slogging. When you score 80 ish runs then batters should target for daddy 100s and not throw away wickets and in the second inning they went into shells.
- for a change Likes of Ashwin-Jadeja-Axar got outplayed by Pope. Poor fielding and bad captaincy did play a major part but there is no shame in accepting that they were outplayed and that's why test cricket is tough.