I don't think playing India A is important for Sarfaraz Khan: Shardul Thakur

Former Indian all-rounder and Mumbai Ranji captain Shardul Thakur has backed his colleague Sarfaraz Khan amid his exclusion from the India A squad for the upcoming four-day series against South Africa A.

Speaking to the media ahead of the team’s next Ranji game, Thakur made it clear that Sarfaraz can straightaway make it to the Indian Test team, courtesy of his good form, without the need to play India A games

"Nowadays, for the India A side, they look at boys, who they want to prepare for international cricket. Sarfaraz doesn't need the India A game to play international cricket. If he gets back to scoring again, he can straight away go and play Test series also," Mumbai captain Thakur told the media.

"He is coming from injury lay-off. But before that, he scored two-three centuries in the Buchi Babu Trophy before getting injured. Coming back against J&K in the previous match, he had a nice 42. It was very unfortunate to have been run out. But for him, I don't think playing India A is important," Thakur added.

"He is a senior pro and whenever we put him in there in the 22 yards, he is someone who always delivers in crunch situations. He has big scores of 200-250s and those innings have come when the team was two or three down quite early in the innings. To play that kind of innings under pressure, you have to have something special in you." "He is one of the special players who never disappoints to perform and put up big scores. He has done it for years and years. Regardless of which number he bats, I think he will deliver," he concluded.

For the unversed, Sarfaraz was part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but he couldn’t make it to the final playing XI in all five Tests. Later, he was axed for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy due to undisclosed reasons. 

He went on to score 92 runs for India A against England Lions in a pre-tour game ahead of the England tour. However, he was ruled out of action later due to an injury. Nevertheless, he made a strong comeback in the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 campaign, losing 17 kgs of weight to look a lot leaner. Despite that, selectors didn’t give him a chance in the India A squad for the South Africa A series.

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