The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Tuesday announced the 15-member India A squad for the two-match red-ball series at home against South Africa A, but Sarfaraz Khan was left out.
The decision sparked widespread criticism, with social media showing no mercy to the selectors for ignoring the Mumbai batter. Former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin shared the sentiment but chose to give Sarfaraz a dose of harsh reality, saying the decision could likely mean that the door has been shut on his return to the Indian Test team.
Sarfaraz made his debut for India in Test cricket in the home series against England last year, where he scored fifties in both innings in his debut appearance. Overall, he played six Tests for India, scoring 371 runs, which included a century that came in the last series he played, against New Zealand in November 2024. However, the narrative around Sarfaraz quickly changed in his final two appearances, where he scored just 21 runs, including a duck. He was subsequently selected for the Australian tour. But forget getting picked, at times, he barely even got to bat in the nets.
The Mumbai star remained in the scheme of things and was picked for the India A team for the tour of England, where he scored 92. Then over the summer, he shed 17 kilograms of weight to look leaner and fitter than ever, before scoring consecutive tons in the pre-domestic-season Buchi Babu tournament. However, an injury saw him miss the Duleep Trophy and subsequently the home Test series against West Indies. While he cleared the fitness test thereafter, Sarfaraz was not considered for the India A series against South Africa A, which will get underway next month.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin once again highlighted the issue around “lack of communication” and reckoned the selection clearly outlined a “confusion”.
“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.”
Ashwin admitted that he has been pained and left clueless at Sarfaraz’s non-selection for the India A series, highlighting that the youngster has already ticked all the boxes for a spot in the Indian side.
The veteran spiner bowler said: “However, when I examine Sarfaraz’s non-selection, I don’t receive any explanation. I am very sad and feel sorry for him. Had I been the selector, what would I have called him up and said? He has reduced his weight, and he has been scoring runs; he also scored a century in his last Test series. And this sort of non-selection leads me to think that someone must have been thinking that we have seen enough of him, and we no longer want him, so we don’t want to go in that direction.”
Ashwin, who retired from international cricket last December, laid out the harsh reality for Sarfaraz, pointing out that the India A snub could signal the end of his pathway back to the national team.
“If I were Sarfaraz Khan, that is what I would be thinking. He has been dropped from the India A side. It’s literally like the door has been shut. Where will he perform? Now, if he performs well in first-class cricket, they will say he is very good only for first-class cricket. So he won’t get picked for India A now. Where will he go and prove his credentials? Where will he show that he has improved? So, such non-selection feels like someone’s decision, whether from the management side or the selection side, that we are no longer looking at him.”