Sarfaraz Khan’s place in the India cricket team is in danger. The middle-order batter had finally made his way to the national team last year after toiling hard in domestic cricket for years. It was his performance against the England Lions that earned him a place in India’s Test team, and it may be that he won’t play against England in the upcoming 5-match tour.
Lack of trust in skills away from home
There isn’t any doubt that Sarfaraz is one of the most talented middle-order batters in India. But the selectors don’t seem to have faith in his technique and perhaps even temperament. Last year, against New Zealand, he scored a great 150 when India was far behind in the match in Bengaluru. That earned him massive praise. But in the following matches, Sarfaraz scored 21 runs in 4 innings.
Then came the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He was selected for the tour. But the trust just wasn’t there. In conditions that aid pace and bounce, his game wasn’t trusted. India played Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel over him. They both got to play when Rohit Sharma and Shubman weren’t available.
Sarfaraz is known for his game against spin. And although his skills against pace may not be equally good, he was picked to play in South Africa before. Yet, the management felt Jurel was a better bet than him in Perth. That does tell that there isn’t much faith in his game away from home in pace-friendly conditions.
No matches for 6 months
On top of all this, he has nothing to make a case for himself. Sarfaraz didn’t play one match in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season. He missed the first leg due to commitments to India’s Test team and the second leg due to injury. And he won’t play any cricket, at least until the end of May, when India A travels to face the England Lions.
Stiff competition
According to reports, Sarfaraz will face stiff competition when it comes to selection for India’s Test squad for England. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are looking to fill a couple of spots in the middle order. Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar and Padikkal are the five names apart from Sarfaraz.
There aren’t name spots to fill. Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant are basically confirmed. Then you have Ravindra Jadeja and Nitesh Kumar Reddy as well. That means all they need are backups. And all five batters mentioned above have the upper hand over Sarfaraz.
Barring Padikkal, all were exceptional in the Ranji Trophy. Shreyas didn’t play all the matches but was exceptional whenever he took the field. Nair took Vidarbha to their third title and was the fourth-highest scorer of the tournament. Sudharsan played sporadically as well but had the best average of those mentioned. Patidar scored over 500 runs as well. And coming back to Padikkal, he was preferred by the management to play in Australia.
Sarfaraz Khan’s competitors in Ranji Trophy 2024-25
InningsRunsAverage100s50sShreyas Iyer748068.5720Karun Nair1686353.9342Sai Sudharsan43047611Rajat Patidar1152948.0912Devdutt Padikkal412932.25––Karun Nair & Sai Sudharsan’s County Cricket experience
To remind you, Sarfaraz didn’t play in the Ranji Trophy. And hasn’t played a match since November. But it gets even worse. Two of his competitors, Nair and Sudharsan, have played red-ball cricket in England. Both played in the County Championship in 2023 and 2024. They had a good record as well.
Nair played for Northamptonshire, scoring 4 fifties and 2 hundreds (150 and 202). Sudharsan played for Surrey, amassing 281 runs in 5 matches with 1 fifty and 1 hundred. Sarfaraz hasn’t played first-class cricket in England. The case for his selection is extremely weak, and one can even argue that he should not even be in consideration for the India tour of England.
Why Sarfaraz Khan could be dropped for India vs England Tests Inside Sport India.
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