Sarfaraz Khan smashes ton against Delhi, sends another reminder to selectors

The right-hander once again posed serious questions to the national selectors, who ignored him while picking the Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar trophy, as he went on to score 125 (155) to rescue his side.

New Delhi: Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan continued his rich vein of form as he pulled his domestic side out from a spot of bother, scoring his 13th first-class century against Delhi in a Ranji Trophy clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday. The 41-time Ranji Champions were struggling at 66/4 when Sarfaraz came into bat. The right-hander once again posed serious questions to the national selectors, who ignored him while picking the Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar trophy, as he went on to score 125 (155) to rescue his side.

He added 44 runs with wicketkeeper Prasad Pawar (25) for the fifth wicket and continued his batting masterclass with Shams Mulani, stabilising the Mumbai innings. The batter scored a ton, smashing 14 fours and 2 sixes while also stitching a crucial 100-run partnership with Mulani for the sixth wicket.

After reaching his century, Sarfaraz celebrated with great fervour in the direction of the locker room, to which Mumbai coach Amol Mazumdar made an exceptional gesture by tipping his hat to the young batter, signifying the importance of the knock.

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Sarfaraz has been performing consistently in the domestic circuit with spectacular Ranji seasons over the past three years. The 25-year-old has scored 3505 runs in 53 first-class innings at an incredible average of 81.51. The right-hander has been impeccable having scored 928 runs in 6 games and averaging 154.66 in the 2019-20 season, and 982 runs at an average of 122.75 in the 2021-22 season.

In eight innings this season, Sarfaraz has scored 556 runs averaging 111.20 with three centuries, one fifty and a highest score of 162 that came against Tamil Nadu. However, despite these performances, the national selectors didn't name the Mumbai batter in the squad for the upcoming two Tests for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He had also missed out on the two-match Bangladesh test series.

Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan earned a place in the recently announced squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy based on their exploits with the bat in the white-ball format. Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan reacted to Sarfarz's exclusion from the squad and opined his thoughts on Twitter, saying, "Ranji trophy performances should be the first criteria for Test selections."

Sarfaraz took to Instagram earlier to share screenshots of his first-class career record after being left out of the squad for the Australia test series. The screenshot mentioned his record of having the second-highest average (80.47) in first class after the legendary Don Bradman who averaged 95.14.

India's premier all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been named in the squad but his inclusion in the playing eleven is subject to fitness. Aside from Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, who is a regular feature in home Tests, and Kuldeep Yadav form the spin attack.

Jasprit Bumrah continues his rehabilitation and hasn't been named in the squad. The pace attack has Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj with recently recalled Jaydev Unadkat as a left-arm option. The series is a big one for both teams as they look to nail down a spot in the World Test Championships (WTC) final. The series begins in Nagpur on February 9 with Tests in Delhi, Dharamsala and Ahmedabad.

India's Test squad for the first two Tests against Australia: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat and Suryakumar Yadav. (ANI)