Legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar commented on middle-order batter Sarfaraz Khan’s exclusion from India’s squad for the five-match Test series against England, scheduled to commence on June 20.
As the two-time World Test Championship (WTC) finalists are set to embark on a new era under the leadership of Shubman Gill, Sarfaraz, who made his long-awaited debut against England last year, failed to cement his position in the outfit.
The right-handed batter, who scored a century in India’s first Test of the three-match home series against New Zealand in November last year, registered meagre scores of 11, nine, zero and one in his subsequent four innings.
He remained benched during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) until eventually being dropped from the squad entirely.
Reacting to his omission, Gavaskar urged that the batter should have cemented his place by consistently piling up runs.
“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,” Gavaskar said.
“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.”
Sunil Gavaskar, however, acknowledged that it was a ‘tough’ call by the selectors to drop Sarfaraz Khan after the BGT as the batter could not play domestic cricket due to an injury.
“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 concluded.
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