Sarfaraz Khan has cultivated a reputation for consistently producing astronomically high scores in the Ranji Trophy but it has been slightly thus far this season. The 25-year-old, whose exclusion from the India A side’s red-ball matches at home against South Africa A had raised a lot of eyebrows, as is his general exclusion from the Indian Test team, has only made scores of 42, 32, 1, 15 and 5 not out in three matches this Ranji Trophy season.
Sarfaraz’s senior Mumbai teammate acknowledged that the cause of his form this season may be his non-selection in the national Test team. “In the end, he is a human being and everyone makes some mistakes. There is always that (rough) patch for big players. If we look at the last 4-5 years, he has consistently scored runs,” Lad told the media here on the eve of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy match against Himachal Pradesh.
“Somewhere, it could be demotivating as a player but at this time, it is up to us as a team and support staff as to how do we lift him up? We know his potential and if he plays (well), he will play big innings. As a team, we will try to lift his confidence in any way we can,” Lad added.
Sarfaraz has scored 371 runs in six Tests that he has played thus far with a century and three half-centuries. His lone century came as part of a fightback against New Zealand last year in a series that India stunningly lost 3-0 at home. He has scored 4780 runs 58 first class matches at an average of 63.73 with 16 centuries and 15 half-centuries.
Sarfaraz’s Mumbai teammate Shardul Thakur earlier said that the batter probably doesn’t need to be playing for India A to earn selection to the Indian team. “Nowadays, for the India A side, they look at boys, who they want to prepare for international cricket. I feel Sarfaraz doesn’t need an India A game to play international cricket. If he gets back to scoring again, he can straight away go and play Test series also,” the medium-pacer explained.
Sarfaraz hasn’t been part of the Indian team since the 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. He wasn’t picked for the two-match Test series against the West Indies at home earlier this month due to injury. However, what came as a surprise was him missing out from the India A squad without any reason. Thakur stated that Sarfaraz was coming from injury lay-off and he was looking in a good touch.
“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 40 (42). It was very unfortunate to have been run out. But for him, I don’t think playing India A is important,” Thakur added..
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