“He has reduced his weight” - Ravi Ashwin lashes out at selectors for Sarfaraz Khan’s non-selection

Former Indian cricketer Ravi Ashwin has slammed the Indian selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, for the Indian middle-order batter Sarfaraz Khan’s non-selection in the India A squad for the upcoming two-match four-day South Africa A series.

While Rishabh Pant has been selected as the India A captain upon his return to professional cricket, Sai Sudharsan has been appointed as his deputy. However, the major talking point has been Sarfaraz’s exclusion.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin cited examples of former Indian cricketers Manoj Tiwary and Subramaniam Badrinath who went on to play for India A, but didn’t get enough ample chances for India eventually. He also requested for good communication between players and selectors. 

“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.

For the unversed, Sarfaraz lost around 17 kgs of his weight to look significantly leaner, with a focus on his fitness. However, his constant non-inclusion in the Indian Test and India A four-day squads has raised eyebrows.

“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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