Melbourne, Dec 27 (IANS): Legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar shared a brutally honest review of the underperforming pacer Mohammed Siraj and called for the left-arm pacer to be dropped from the Indian side after a string of poor outings in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy series.

Siraj, who was a vital cog in the 2021 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series win, has not been up to the mark in the ongoing series, having taken 13 wickets in seven innings and not being fierce enough with the new ball, causing extra burden on Jasprit Bumrah’s shoulders.

Gavaskar believes the right-arm quick needs to be told he is being dropped rather than being rested. "I think Siraj, perhaps, needs a little bit of a break. In the sense, I am not saying a break, he needs to be told that he is left out of the team for non-performance. There has to be a situation where you can’t beat around the bush.

“You need to be brutally upfront and say ‘look, your performance has not been up to scratch, and therefore you are being dropped.’ When you start talking about ‘rest,’ players get wrong ideas. They feel they don’t need to up their game," Gavaskar told Star Sports.

Siraj has also topped the unwanted list of having conceded the most runs per over by a frontline pacer in the series, currently averaging 4.07 runs per over. He was totally off his game in the ongoing Boxing Day Test match having conceded 122 runs in 23 overs without getting any scalp to his name in the first innings.

Gavaskar has called for either the return of Harshit Rana, who played in the opening two Tests, or the introduction of Prasidh Krishna into the playing XI for the fifth and final Test in Sydney.

"But I think Siraj needs to be told ‘Look, you are not bowling as well as we expected you to on pitches that have been helpful’. That is something that needs to be told. If you want to make two changes. Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana to support Jasprit Bumrah. By all means, do that," he added.