Gautam Gambhir-Ajit Agarkar taking personal revenge from Sarfaraz Khan? Indian cricket alleges

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar finds a deficiency in the Indian Test squad for England tour as he does not agree with the selections of Ajit Agarkar and Gautam Gambhir for the five-match Test series.

The selectors picked an 18-member squad for the England series and handed the captaincy to Shubman Gill. Karun Nair also made his much-awaited return to the Test squad.

Read also: England announce Playing XI for West Indies 1st ODI; Harry Brook takes charge officially

SHORTS

View More

Your daily dose of cricket!

Loading...

Sanjay Manjrekar finds holes in the selection

The name that polarised the opinions of the experts in the Test squad announcement was Sarfaraz Khan. Sarfaraz Khan was dropped from the Indian Test squad, but he hasn’t done too badly in the recent chances he got from the management.

Sanjay Manjrekar feels that the Chief selector Ajit Agarkar and the Indian Head coach Gautam Gambhir selected the players based on their inner instincts, not from a performance perspective.

Sarfaraz became the victim of Agarkar and Gambhir’s thinking, as Sarfaraz didn’t get the opportunity to play in Australia and on what basis Sarfaraz was dropped from the squad, Manjrekar asked.

"Under Gambhir’s stewardship and with Rohit not there anymore, I see a tendency in this management to pre-empt performances of individuals while making selections. As in, the dominating thought here is to apply their own view of the likely success and failure of players depending on conditions and opposition," Manjrekar stated in his column for The Hindustan Times.

The performance of Sarfaraz in recent times has outweighed Karun Nair in selection. The Gambhir-Agarkar duo picked the squad on their instinct as they thought Sarfaraz would not get runs in England.

"Take the example of Sarfraz Khan. Three fifties and a 150 at home in four Tests and failures in only four innings after that and Sarfaraz does not get a single game in Australia. For the England tour too, he has been left out despite his performances in recent times outweighing Karun Nair’s completely."

"So, this non-selection is not about performance, it’s about someone important in the leadership group thinking Sarfaraz will not get runs in England and Australia, and Karun Nair will," Manjrekar added.

Is Karun Nair's selection over Sarfaraz Khan right?

Karun Nair has been in red-hot form as he is scoring runs consistently in domestic cricket in every format of the game. Nair scored 863 runs in nine matches in the Ranji Trophy for Vidarbha.

Karun also scored 779 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, and because of his consistent performance, he got the chance to play in the IPL for Delhi Capitals and score 89 runs in his debut match of the season.

While Sarfaraz Khan worked hard before the England tour, as he lost 10 kg in the last two months and has been working on his fitness. Sarfaraz hasn’t played much cricket in recent times because of the injury.

Sarfaraz Khan in the India A squad

Despite not getting a place in the Indian Test squad, Sarfaraz Khan got a place in the India A squad for the England tour. If Sarfaraz plays well against the England Lions, then it might be a possibility that he can make it to the squad later.

India A will play two Test matches against England Lions, and some players of India A have already landed in the UK to start their practice.