The Indian cricket team will start their new WTC cycle with playing two-match test series against West Indies when they will travel to West Indies in July and there India will also play 3 ODIs and 5 T20Is. The Indian squad recently lost the WTC final to Australia by 209 runs and this was India’s second consecutive defeat in the WTC finals, the first being against New Zealand.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already announced the team for the West Indies tour and many former Indian cricketers and fans are not happy with the fact that the selectors have once again ignored the young and talented cricketer Sarfaraz Khan. Sarfaraz Khan has been quite phenomenal when it comes to domestic level, in the last three seasons of the Ranji Trophy, he has scored 2566 runs and his first class average at the moment is 79.65 which is the best by any Indian cricketer and is second to Don Bradman (minimum 50 innings). What has made people angrier is the fact that Ruturaj Gaikwad who averages only 42 gets selected in the 16-member squad but Sarfaraz has not been selected.
This is not the first time that Sarfaraz has been ignored by the selectors, earlier also many were hoping that he would get the chance to play in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but he wasn’t chosen by the selectors. The former Indian cricketers including Sunil Gavaskar were very upset with non-selection of Sarfaraz Khan and some of them even stated that the Ranji Trophy should be scrapped if the selections are made on the basis of IPL performances (Sarfaraz didn’t have a good IPL 2023).
Why Sarfaraz Khan is not selected for the West Indies tour?
However, a BCCI official has now revealed as to why Sarfaraz Khan was not selected and the reasons that he gave were not related to cricket but with Sarfaraz’s fitness and on-field behaviour.
The official states that the selectors are not fools to ignore a cricketer who has scored 900 runs in successive seasons. He further says that it’s quite certain that the reason behind snubbing is not a cricketing one. The official adds that there are many reasons because of which he has not been considered and one of them is his fitness which is not par with the standards of international players.
The official goes on to state that the on-field behaviour has played a part in him not getting considered, he said some things, some of his gestures, etc. haven’t gone well with the selectors and they expect a more disciplined approach from the youngster.
When the official was asked whether the IPL performance played a role in Sarfaraz’s non-selection, the official stated that earlier Mayank Agarwal was selected in the team because he scored around 1000 runs in one domestic season and the same thing happened with Hanuma Vihari. He questioned when the old selection committees never checked the white ball and IPL record of players while selecting the test squad then why the present selection committee headed by SS Das will take IPL performance into consideration. The official further added that the media is responsible for creating this perception that IPL performances play a role in the selection of a player in the national team but in reality, it is not the case.
Let’s see how Sunil Gavaskar and other former cricketers will react after this revelation.
Also Read: BCCI Selector Finally Reacts To Constant Non-Selection Of Sarfaraz Khan In Team India