Sarfaraz Khan: BCCI official explains why the batter was ignored by the selectors

The lack of Sarfaraz Khan’s name in India’s Test squad for the West Indies tour has led to an outburst by fans and experts with even legendary Sunil Gavaskar questioning the absence of the Mumbai batter.

India after the defeat in the World Test Championship final 2023 to Australia decided to include Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad in the squad and dropped Cheteshwar Pujara but Sarfaraz failed to earn a maiden call-up. This despite amassing 2566 runs in the last three Ranji Trophy seasons.

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However, a BCCI official has now revealed to the news agency PTI the exact reasons for the young cricketer’s name missing from the squad. The BCCI official said that there are multiple reasons for ignoring Sarfaraz and some of them are not cricketing ones. He added that the non-cricketer reasons range from poor fitness standards to some of the gestures made towards the selectors.

“The angry reactions are understandable but I can tell you with some degree of certainty that the reason behind Sarfaraz getting ignored time and again is not just cricketing one. There are multiple reasons for which he hasn’t been considered. Are the selectors fools to not consider a player who has scored 900 plus runs in successive seasons? One of the reason is his fitness which isn’t exactly of international standard,” the official said.

“His conduct on and off the field hasn’t exactly been top notch. Certain things said, certain gestures made and some incidents have been taken note of. A bit more disciplined approach would only do him a world of good. Hopefully, Sarfaraz along with his father and coach Naushad Khan will work on those aspects,” the senior official added.

It has been reported that his celebration after his Ranji Trophy century in Delhi earlier this year that has not gone down well with the selectors.

What was wrong in this celebration#SarfarazKhanpic.twitter.com/ekRzBoZ57s

— KL Siku Kumar (@KL_Siku_Kumar) June 25, 2023

Sarfaraz’s weakness against the short ball which was experienced in IPL is also sighted as a reason for his exclusion from the squad, but the BCCI official rejected that theory.

“That’s a perception built by media. Do you think there could be any cricketing reason? “When Mayank Agarwal broke into Indian Test team, he scored 1000 first class runs in one month. Did MSK Prasad’s committee check his IPL credentials? Ditto for Hanuma Vihari, who came through domestic and A team ranks. If their IPL and white ball record wasn’t checked then, why would SS Das’s committee reinvent the wheel now? Simple. The reason is not a cricketing one,” he said.

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