Sunil Gavaskar questions BCCI for not including Sarfaraz Khan in the upcoming India vs West Indies tour 2023. The squads for the Test series and ODIs are announced whereas the squad for T20 is yet to be finalised.
Sunil Gavaskar Questions BCCI Decision
As the West Indies vs India 2023 squad decided, it is shocking that Sarfaraz Khan is not selected for the Test series, despite his good performance in the previous Ranji trophies.
After the Indian team Selection for the tour of the West Indies, Ex-captain Sunil Gavaskar had a question: “Sarfaraz Khan has been scoring at an average of 100 in the past three seasons. What does he have to do to be picked in the [Test] squad?
Sarfaraz has scored 556 runs in Ranji trophy 2022-23 which includes three centuries. He holds an average of 106.7 in his cricket journey since the start of 2020.
The Selection Committee are not even allowed to say the condition of Mohammed Shami, whether he is okay or still on injury. So, It will be tough to tell a player like Sarafaz Khan that they aren’t good enough to be in the squad despite his scores in last three seasons in Ranji trophy, but we can hope it was done in a sensitive manner.
There can be one strong cricketing reason for Sarfaraz’s non-selection. A Pattern we can identify, without selectors insight where Sarfaraz’s 3505 runs, 3348 have come at no.5 or below.
We so have stats for batting positions in domestic first class cricket out of which India is said to have 54 test performers. Karun Nair is one of them with great potential of his Ranji Trophy runs before his test debut at no.5 or below. Prior to making his India Debut, Nair had moved to No.4 in the season immediately.
So none of the big performers at No. 5 or below since 2006 had been on squad for Test cricket for India. Apart from Sarfaraz, the list includes Manish Pandey (average 65) and Ambati Rayudu (average 60).
The players who were able to make it to the squad was Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha and Axar Patel. That is too because they are said to be allrounders or wicketkeepers batting above their performance to prove their skills for Test selection.
Ajay Jadeja and Amol Muzumdar are the one who are on top four who runs outside the first class scorers with average of 67 and 53 in the lower-middle order.
But these stats are only 2005-06 onwards, indicating that they are given opportunity there only at the end of their careers. In the Ranji Trophy, a good batter bats in the lower-middle order usually at the start or the end of his career.
Possible Reasons for Non-Selection
Sarfaraz khan had been through numerous times when he has had the chances after the batting of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Ajinkya Rahane, but it hasn’t always the case And so this year a lot of those players will be away on India duty, so Sarfaraz can have the opportunity to shine. Even Ruturaj Gaikwad was named in the test squad on WI tour.
This is not to say that Sarfaraz is not a good batter and won’t do well against in the West Indies tour, fresh bowlers and stronger attacks, but perhaps the selectors haven’t seen enough performance of that yet.
It could be like it Is the ruthless decision by the committee, but selection in India is a ruthless job. There is so much batting talent in the country that you have to show the performance above the level for being noticed by the committee members.
Sarfaraz Khan hasn’t received any feedback from the selectors or the management, but the answer to Gavaskar’s question is perhaps giving the chances for the young and upcoming players.
What more does Sarfaraz have to get picked in India’s Test squad? To bat higher in Mumbai’s line-up and give the selectors more reasons to select him. Or giving the less reasons to ignore him, because the premature narration about the decision at the moment is that they are denying him a spot rather than giving him constructive feedback on how to earn that India Test cap.
India’s Test squad
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.
