NEW DELHI, June 9 -- Mohammed Siraj walked off the field in New Chandigarh on Monday after India's one-off Test against Afghanistan ended inside three days. By Tuesday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India had quietly removed him from the squads for the tours of Ireland and England. The sequence, barely 24 hours apart, told a clearer story than the official statement that followed.

The BCCI said the decision had been taken "as a precautionary measure to ensure adequate recovery ahead of a long international season." Prasidh Krishna, his Gujarat Titans team-mate, was named as the replacement for both the two-match T20I series in Ireland and the five-match T20I series in England.

What the statement did not say: Siraj had just complet...