Sarfaraz Khan continues to be excluded from India’s squad and this remains to be one of the most confusing storylines. Despite having exceptional domestic record, the Mumbai batters finds himself on the sidelines not only from the men’s senior team but also India A squad.
Khan last played for India A in November 2024 during the home series against New Zealand and since then he has been waiting for another opportunity. Its already been an year but still there’s no ray of comeback. Now, when the India A squad was announced for match against South Africa A, Sarfaraz’s name was again not in the list and despite all the impressive performances he failed to secure his spot in the team.
In FC cricket, Sarfaraz has a total of 4,759 runs with a stellar average of 65.19 in 56 matches. He has also featured in six Tests and scored 371 runs and this includes one century and three fifties.
Ravichandran Ashwin was also baffled to see his omission and he could not understand the logic behind this selection decision.
“I can’t find any logic behind Sarfaraz’s non-selection in the India A side. I feel very, very sad for him. If I were a selector, what would I call and tell Sarfaraz? He has reduced weight, he has scored runs too, he even hit a century against New Zealand. This kind of non-selection leads me to think that someone, somewhere thinks, ‘Sarfaraz Khan ko dekh liya, abhi nahi chahiye (We’ve seen Sarfaraz Khan, don’t need him anymore).’ He has not been selected in the India A side. What happens to him now? Literally, the door has been shut on him. Where will he perform? Now if he does well in first-class cricket, they will say he is a very good player in first-class, so he won’t get an A series. Where will he go and prove his credentials?” Ashwin fumed.
“When such a non-selection happens, it probably feels like someone in the management or the selectors has decided that we are not looking at him anymore.”
“The problem is that your communication and selection should match. I remember Subramaniam Badrinath used to play for the India A team and was the captain as well for a long time, but did not get selected. The same happened to Manoj Tiwary. The communication that went through was that ‘we have seen enough of you, and now we want to take a look at fresh faces. So you won’t be playing for the India A team anymore, but if we need you in the Indian team, we will pick you,'” he said.
“But if you look at the current India A side, there is a little bit of confusion. If you say we have seen enough of Sarfaraz in India A, and only if we need him will we pick him in the Indian side, then that will be wrong. Because you picked Abhimanyu Easwaran, and he has played enough for India A. However, barring these cases, the rest are all futuristic – Harsh Dubey and Manav Suthar.”