A new era has started in India’s Test team, with Shubman Gill taking over the captaincy reins from Rohit Sharma, while Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan have been included in the squad, following the exits of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Without the duo, India are staring a new journey under the skipper Gill and vice-captain Rishabh Pant. However, one player who many felt was unfairly axed from the team for the upcoming five-match Test series against England was Sarfaraz Khan.
Reflecting on this, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar told India Today, “It’s tough, that’s what cricket is all about. When you get opportunities, you have to make sure the place is yours. Even if you score a hundred, you should make sure that you don’t go into your next innings thinking you scored a hundred in the previous knock. You have to get your eye in and get those runs again. You must not give anybody a chance to push you out of the team.”
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“It’s entirely up to you to ensure you cement that spot. You need to keep knocking on the doors and break the doors down,” he again shared.
Sunil Gavaskar also added that it was a ‘tough’ call from selectors to leave Sarfaraz after the Australia tour as he couldn’t do well in domestic cricket due to an injury as well.
“I think it’s a tough call because after the tour of Australia, there was no red-ball cricket. Yes, there was the Ranji Trophy, but he was injured. So, he didn’t play. There was no way he could show what his form was. You have to be undroppable. We have seen in the past, if a team loses a series, the guys who are 13th, 14th, 15th in the squad get dropped. You have to take your chances,” he further added.
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However, in the press conference on Saturday, Ajit Agarkar said that Sarfaraz Khan was dropped from the team as he ‘didn’t get runs’ after the New Zealand century.
“Sometimes you just have to make good decisions. Sarfaraz, I know he got a 100 in the first Test (vs New Zealand) and then didn’t get runs. Sometimes it’s the decisions 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,” Agarkar had shared.
