‘Justice For Sarfaraz Khan’: Fans Slam BCCI For Selection Of Ishan Kishan

Sarfaraz Khan was overlooked once again by the BCCI as the selectors named Ishan Kishan as the replacement player for the injured KL Rahul in the WTC Final squad to take on Australia at The Oval.

KL Rahul, who was expected to bat in the middle-order in place of Shreyas Iyer, sustained a thigh injury during the IPL 2023 and will undergo surgery, missing the remainder of the IPL 2023 and the following WTC Final in June.

Now while Ajinkya Rahane, who made a comeback in the Test squad is now likely to get into the XI in place of KL Rahul at number 5, fans had been expecting that someone with red-ball domestic success as that of Sarfaraz Khan would be picked as the replacement of KL Rahul in the squad.

Ajinkya Rahane Sarfaraz Khan Harsha Bhogle

However, not only Sarfaraz Khan is not picked as Rahul’s replacement, he is also not in the 3 standbys that the selectors have named.

Sarfaraz Khan had piled up 556 runs in the 2022/23 Ranji Trophy season at a Bradman-esque average of 92.6 with three centuries.

Rohit Sharma Sarfaraz Khan

Suryakumar Yadav, who played one Test match against Australia, uncapped batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad, and uncapped seamer Mukesh Kumar are the three standbys to travel to England. Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan were part of the home Border-Gavaskar Trophy series with SKY making his Test debut.

Fans were really upset and furious with the BCCI for ignoring Sarfaraz Khan once again despite his terrific domestic form over the past three years.

Here are some reactions from fans over the exclusion of Sarfaraz Khan from WTC Final squad:

India’s squad for WTC final 2023: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk).

Standby players: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav.

Fast bowlers Jaydev Unadkat (Shoulder injury) and Umesh Yadav (hamstring) are also dealing with injuries.