The story of Sarfaraz Khan remains the same for the past couple of years: BCCI selectors continue to ignore him and fans continue to question what more Khan needs to do to make it into India’s Test squad.
As India kick-starts the WTC 2023/25 cycle with the tour of West Indies which includes a 2-Test series, it also should and does indicate the transition period in Indian cricket as Pujara and Umesh are dropped, fans had been expecting that Sarfaraz would finally get the nod. However, the selectors went with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Here’s why it is so unfair for the selectors to not pick Sarfaraz Khan:
Sarfaraz Khan has numbers, and deserved the call-up
While there are claims that selectors are not happy with Sarfaraz’s fitness and disciplinary issues, there is no denying or ignoring the cold, hard numbers: in 37 first-class matches, Sarfaraz has an outstanding average of 79 with 13 centuries to his name.
To put this context how legendary these numbers are: in the history of first-class cricket in the world, among batters who have scored over 2000 first-class runs, only two batters have an average of over 75 – Sarfaraz and Sir Don Bradman. That’s how iconic these numbers are from the 25-year-old Mumbai batsman. Yet, he couldn’t knock down the door of the BCCI selectors.
Sarfaraz Khan’s non-selection sends out wrong messages to the first-class players
Jaiswal and Gaikwad both have good first-class averages, but are much lower than Khan’s 79. Yet, both of the two are selected while Sarfaraz is not. And Sarfaraz is not the only one; the likes of Priyank Panchal and Abhimanyu Easwaran too have been hard done by the selectors as others who have performed in the IPL have gotten get the nod before them, such as Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan.
What kind of message does it send to the other players grinding hard in first-class cricket?
Jaiswal and Gaikwad have done well in the IPL, so is now performing in the IPL a benchmark or a necessity to get into the Indian Test team?
