Shardul Thakur has opened up about Sarfaraz Khan’s exclusion from India A squad for the upcoming tour of South Africa. Thakur asserted that Sarfaraz has already proven his red-ball capabilities and he no longer needs to be in A team to get to bridge his path to the national side.
“Nowadays, for the India A side, they look at boys, who they want to prepare for international cricket. I feel Sarfaraz doesn’t need an India A game to play international cricket. If he gets back to scoring again, he can straight away go and play Test series also,” said Shardul Thakur as quoted by the Indian Express.
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“But before that, he scored two-three centuries in the Buchi Babu Trophy before getting injured. Coming back against J&K in the previous match, he had a nice 40. It was very unfortunate to have been run out. But for him, I don’t think playing India A is important.”
“He has big scores of 200-250s, and those innings have come when the team was two or three down quite early in the innings. To play that kind of innings under pressure, you have to have something special in you. He is one of the special players who never disappoints to perform and put up big scores. He has done it for years and years. Regardless of which number he bats, I think he will deliver,” Thakur said.
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The selectors faced criticism after leaving Sarfaraz out and his stats have also strongly backed his case. In the last three Ranji Trophy seasons, Sarfaraz has been piling up runs. In the 2021-22 season, he scored 982 runs in nine innings and had a stunning average of 122.75, this also included 4 centuries and a top score of 275. The following season (2022–23), he continued his hot streak, amassing 556 runs at 92.66, and even in a shortened 2023–24 campaign, he managed 200 runs at 50.
