Sarfaraz Khan has a first-class average of 65.61, but has been dropped from the upcoming series against England. Sarah Waris looks at the reasons why.
The clamour about the non-selection of Sarfaraz Khan in India’s Test side finally ended in February last year, after the Mumbaikar-then-UPite-then-Mumbaikar again, at least for Indian cricket record books, was handed his cap in a teary ceremony on a cold winter morning. After an extended embrace with his ‘abbu’, Sarafraz was ready for the big stage.
His first day of Test cricket showed what the hype was about. Walking out in the third session, Sarfaraz played a counter-attacking innings of 62 in 66 deliveries, and had a shot at becoming just the 18th Indian with a hundred on Test debut if not for an unfortunate run-out.
Sarfaraz brought up fifty twice more in his next four innings, and finally got to his maiden Test ton against New Zealand at Bengaluru. Up against the wall after India were all out for just 46 in their first innings, Sarfaraz’s 150 was in keeping with his reputation of converting his hundreds into 150s. More importantly, it helped overturn the deficit of 356 for India, as Rishabh Pant (99) and Sarfaraz gave a glimpse of the eccentricities - and “maturity” as skipper Rohit Sharma described it - that would await India once the older generation of players walked off.
A year later, that has lent itself to reality, but without the presence of Sarfaraz in the side.
So what went wrong for Sarfaraz?
After his 150, Sarfaraz could only manage 11, 9, 0 and 1 in his next four innings. He has not played a Test since the one at Wankhede last November, and was one of three India players to not get a single game in the five Tests against Australia. With India playing Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel ahead of him, it reignited chatter about Sarfaraz’s batting against pace and how that could be a hindrance in his career, particularly outside Asia.
Former Australia spinner Brad Hogg highlighted Sarfaraz’s technical flaws on his YouTube video ahead of the Australia tour: “If he goes to places like England and South Africa and if he’s on the tour here to Australia where there’s extra bounce, he might find himself in a little bit of trouble with the way that he sets himself up before the fast-bowler delivers.
“Those hands are very low. So, he’s got to bring them up, and when it bounces a little bit, it’s going to be a little bit harder to adjust with the extra pace on those wickets. So that’s something that he might look out for with his technique, to just have a slight change before he gets down here to Australia.”
Sarfaraz has limited experience playing first-class cricket in SENA countries. He has played only four games for India A away from Asia, with scores of 71*, 14, 68 and 34. At Bloemfontein in 2022, India A had slipped to 76-4, and then 154-5, before Sarfaraz batted out 94 deliveries to top-score for his side with 71 unbeaten runs which included two sixes.
However, in the New Zealand series, Sarfaraz showed signs of struggling against the awkward pace, bounce, and swing generated by the quicks. Overall, he faced 76 deliveries against Matt Henry and Tim Southee, 72.1 per cent of which didn't fetch a run. Against the lanky Will O'Rourke, Sarfaraz scored 39 runs off 35 balls, using upper cuts and late cuts to frequently send the ball towards point and third man, but his methods were fraught with extreme risk, which would only be exaggerated in seam-friendly conditions with densely populated slip cordons outside Asia.
He was not picked for the India A series against Australia, and only made one in the tour game that he played ahead of the series.
Sarfaraz had also struggled against the bounce of Mark Wood in the 2023 IPL, where he looked at sea against the hard lengths. Eventually, he had been dismissed after trying to upper cut a short ball awkwardly, with the ball landing into the hands of the deep fine-leg fielder.
Ajit Agarkar: Karun Nair has more experience
The official reason for dropping Sarfaraz from the Test squad was his lack of experience, according to chief selector Ajit Agarkar. “Sarfaraz did play the three Test matches [against New Zealand] in India. I know he got a hundred in the first Test, didn't get runs [after that] and missed out in Australia. Sometimes those are decisions which the team management takes. Whether it's fair on somebody or unfair on someone, those are the choices that you make in the best interest of the team.
“At the moment, we felt Karun has put up heaps of runs over the last couple of seasons. He's played a little bit of Test cricket early in his career, has played a bit of county cricket. We feel that he's batting well enough.
"Also now with Virat not there, clearly lacking a little bit of experience in the batting. Jaiswal is touring [England] for the first time. I know Gill has played one Test match [there]. It's only KL and Pant who have played a series there before. So we felt Nair's experience could help. Sometimes it is going to be unfair on somebody else but eventually you've got to make choices."
There would have been three batting spots up for discussion in the selection meeting, which eventually went to Sai Saudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Nair. Sudharsan - despite his first-class average of 39.93, has shown immense range against pace during his India A games, and also has county experience. Nair is in incredible form and comes with county experience as well, while Easwaran has been with the squad since 2023, but is yet to make his debut. He will also serve as a backup opener in a side that has more questions than answers in front of them currently.
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