Former Indian fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad criticised as “unfair” the ignorance of the in-form batsman, the domestic run-machine Sarfaraz Khan, from the Indian test team. Prasad’s comments were made in response to Sarfaraz Khan’s exclusion from the test team.
In just 37 first-class matches, the 25-year-old cricketer Sarfaraz has already scored more than 3,500 runs while playing for Mumbai in domestic cricket.
According to Venkatesh Prasad, the rejection of Sarfaraz by the selection committee is a disrespect to Indian domestic cricket.
Sarfaraz’s performance in the Ranji Trophy prompted Venkatesh Prasad to write those words. The young sensation Sarfaraz reached his 13th first-class century when he scored 125 runs off 155 balls in a Ranji Group B encounter against Delhi. The match took place on Tuesday. After Sarfaraz made another century in the Ranji Trophy, Venkatesh Prasad posted the following tweet.
“Not having him in the Indian Test Team despite three blockbuster domestic seasons is unfair on Sarfaraz Khan, but also an affront to domestic cricket, almost as if this platform does not count.”
The former Indian national team’s former bowling coach, who has also coached for teams like Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab (now known as Punjab Kings) in the Indian Premier League, taunted some of the selectors and Indian cricketers by saying that many other players in the squad weight more than Sarfaraz, who is considered to be on the heavier side. Venkatesh Prakash believes that Sarfaraz’s fitness level is sufficient for him to have a vast and significant batting performance.
Many other Indian cricketers weigh more than Sarfaraz, Prasad stated, but Sarfaraz’s batting form throughout the last two Ranji Trophy seasons is purely something else. On Tuesday, after scoring the century, Sarfaraz made a powerful gesture by removing his helmet, performing the thigh-five celebration, and signalling toward his teammates who were sitting on the boundary line. Throughout the past two Ranji Trophy campaigns, he has scored 1,910 runs in only 12 matches with a scoring average of 136.42.
India and Australia will contest four Test matches beginning on February 9 in Nagpur for the Border-Gavaskar trophy. The young batsman Sarfaraz was not selected to play in any of these games.