Published: Jun 24, 2023, 12:28 PM (IST)
Edited: Jun 24, 2023, 12:28 PM (IST)
New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India’s ODI and Test squads for the West Indies tour on Friday. The Indian selectors dropped several big players who were part of the World Test Championship final, like Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadav. On the other hand, IPL star performers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad got India call-ups.
Whereas, some experts and former cricketers are unhappy with the fact that domestic star performer Sarfaraz Khan, who has played 22 innings in the Ranji Trophy since 2019 and has scored 2289 runs at a staggering average of 134.64, including nine centuries and five fifties, is not part of the Test squad.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra criticised the selectors and asked the BCCI about Sarfaraz’s exclusion from the squad, further stating that the board should make public the reasons behind it.
“What should Sarfaraz do? If you look at his numbers in the past 3 years, he’s head and shoulders above the rest. He’s scored everywhere. Even then, if he’s not selected… what message does it send?” Chopra questioned on his official YouTube channel.
“This is a question worth asking. If there’s some other reason, something which you and I don’t know, make it public. Just say it that you didn’t like that particular thing about Sarfaraz, and that’s why you’re not considering him. But we don’t know if there’s something like that. I don’t know if someone told Sarfaraz about that.
“If you don’t value first-class runs, it leaves a sour taste in the mouth,” said the former India opener.
Former India opener Wasim Jaffer expressed disappointment over the squad picked for the tour. He joins Akash Chopra and questions why players like Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, and Priyank Panchal, who performed exceptionally well, were snubbed from the squad.
“Easwaran and Panchal have been doing the hard yards in Ranji and India A, knocking on Test doors for a long time. Just because they don’t play IPL, is it a case of out of sight out of mind? How did Ruturaj jump the queue?”
