The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on Friday, January 13 announced the squad for the upcoming home Test series against Australia. The apex board named the squad for the first two matches of the four-Tests Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
While Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan were awarded maiden Test call-up for their batting exploits in white-ball cricket, one name which was missing from the squad was of Sarfaraz Khan, who has been one of the most consistent run-scorers in the Ranji Trophy.
Sarfaraz scored 928 runs in the 2019-20 and 982 runs in the 2021-22 edition of the Ranji Trophy. Even in the ongoing edition of the first-class tournament, Sarfaraz has piled up 431 runs at an average of 107.75 and a strike rate of 70.54 with two centuries, one half-century and a top score of 162.
I was feeling loney, I cried too: Sarfaraz Khan
The Mumbai batter finally broke the silence and opened up on his latest snub by the selectors during his recent interaction with Times of India. The 25-year-old revealed that he was very disappointed with the non-selection and kept thinking about it the whole day.
“When the team was announced and my name wasn’t there, I was very sad. Anyone in my place in this world would’ve been sad, because I had expected to be picked, but wasn’t (chosen). Yesterday, I was sad the whole day, when we travelled from Guwahati to Delhi. I was thinking about what and why it happened. I was feeling very lonely. I cried too.”
Since his debut in 2014, Sarfaraz Khan has clobbered 3380 runs in 36 first-class matches at an outstanding average of 80.47, including 12 centuries and nine fifties. There are chances that he might be selected after the completion of the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.
