Former West Indies cricketer and legend Chris Gayle reckons that Sarfaraz Khan is one of his favourite Indian cricketers and the youngster deserved a place in the Indian Test team adding that Sarfaraz Khan also lost a lot of weight to maintain fitness but that shouldn’t be used against him.
Sarfaraz for the record scored a majestic 150 against New Zealand in what was a marathon knock but then followed that up with scores of 11, 9, 0, and 1. It meant that Sarfaraz didn’t find a place in the playing XI for the five-Test series against Australia and warmed the bench.
Sarfaraz Khan wasn’t named in the squad for the five-Test series against England in England but did manage to score 92 runs against the England Lions ahead of the big series.
Chris Gayle’s views on Sarfaraz Khan’s non-inclusion in the Test side
Speaking on Subhankar Mishra’s podcast, Chris Gayle said: “Sarfaraz should be on the Test side. He should be in the Test squad at least, you know, scored a century at home, not in the squad. I saw a post a couple of days ago. He lost weight.”Â
Gayle reckoned: “The weight was not even; nothing was wrong with his weight or anything. He is just fine. He was still scoring runs; the man scored triple centuries in first-class cricket. So if they’re using that against him, that’s sad you know.”Â
Gayle further added: “They should never use that against him. That youngster should have been a part of the squad 100%.”Â
Sarfaraz’s Khan Road to Redemption
Sarfaraz Khan went back to his basics and played the Kanga League in Mumbai as well as the Buchi Babu Trophy in Tamil Nadu. He scored two hundred in the Buchi Babu tournament but just ahead of the Duleep Trophy, he injured his quadriceps.
Sarfaraz Khan is still nursing the injury now and was thus not named in the India A squad that will take on Australia A in two four-day games later this month. It is widely expected that Sarfaraz will be named in India’s Test squad for the long home season coming up especially with the No.3 spots up for grabs following Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan’s average outings in England.
It remains to be seen whether Sarfaraz indeed comes back in the mix for the long home season starting with the West Indies series and then hosting South Africa. It is not simple as it sounds as he is behind in the pecking order with Shreyas Iyer possibly coming back in the mix as well, but he from his end has to keep trying and give his best shot. He has started his redemption story but whether he makes it back to the team is still far fetched.
The thing with this selection panel is that they are a little whimsical and adopts horses for courses policy. So, who they pick and who they drop remains a mystery to everyone. But Sarfaraz knows he has to put in a lot of hard yards if he wants to come back in the team. He is definitely doing that and will keep on doing that. The rest if he keeps getting runs will depend on the selectors whether they want him or not. We feel he will be needed in the middle order and not necessarily at 3, but let’s see how and what the selectors feel about this.
There will be a few question marks that needs to be answered when the Test team is picked as the Test matches against West Indies starts 3 days after Asia Cup 2025 concludes. So, the workload of players will be critical going forward as you do not want people start to get injured as well. So, a lot of factors to be taken into consideration when the team against West Indies is picked and it will be fascinating to see the India Test squad if and when it is picked.
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