“I am very sad and feel sorry for him” - Ravi Ashwin slams selectors for Sarfaraz Khan’s non-selection in India A squad

Former Indian spinner and analyst Ravi Ashwin has lashed out at the chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar, for not giving enough clarity on the Indian middle-order batter Sarfaraz Khan’s exclusion from the India A squad for the forthcoming South Africa A series.

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Notably, Rishabh Pant will lead the India A squad upon his return to professional cricket after a long layoff from a foot fracture. Also, Sai Sudharsan has been named as his deputy for the two-match four-day series against South Africa A.

Speaking exclusively on his YouTube channel, Ashwin requested for clarity and good communication between players and the selection committee, citing examples of Manoj Tiway and Subramaniam Badrinath, who played for India A, but didn’t get enough chances for India.

“The problem is that your communication and selection should match. I remember Subramaniam Badrinath used to play for the India A team and was the captain as well for a long time, but did not get selected. The same happened to Manoj Tiwary. The communication that went through was that ‘we have seen enough of you, and now we want to take a look at fresh faces. So you won’t be playing for the India A team anymore, but if we need you in the Indian team, we will pick you,'” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

“If you say we have seen enough of Sarfaraz in India A, and only if we need him will we pick him in the Indian side, then that will be wrong. Because you picked Abhimanyu Easwaran, and he has played enough for India A. However, barring these cases, the rest are all futuristic — Harsh Dubey and Manav Suthar,” he added.

Interestingly, Sarfaraz shed around 17 kgs of his weight during the off-season to look significantly leaner, with a focus on his fitness ahead of the domestic season. However, his non-selection has raised eyebrows among the Indian cricketing fraternity. 

Moreover, in his last professional game for India A, Sarfaraz went on to hit 92 runs against England Lions in Canterbury, proving his worth before getting ruled out of action due to injury. In his most recent Ranji game, he scored a brilliant half-century for Mumbai.

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“I am very sad and feel sorry for him. Had I been the selector, what would I have called him up and said? He has reduced his weight, and he has been scoring runs; he also scored a century in his last Test series. And this sort of non-selection leads me to think that someone must have been thinking that we have seen enough of him, and we no longer want him,” he observed.

“Now, if he performs well in first-class cricket, they will say he is very good only for first-class cricket. So he won’t get picked for India A now. Where will he go and prove his credentials? Where will he show that he has improved? Such non-selection feels like someone’s decision that we are no longer looking at him,” he concluded.

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