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Sarfaraz Khan's first reaction on maiden India call-up for England Tests as Suryakumar leads congratulations
Sarfaraz Khan has constantly been knocking at the selectors' doors over the last few seasons with his prolific first-class returns.
Sarfaraz Khan's long wait for a maiden call-up to the Indian team ended on Monday after KL Rahul was ruled out of the second Test match against England, which begins on February 2 at the Dr. Y.S.Rajashekar Reddy ACA-VDCA International Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Rahul, who scored a valiant 86 off 123 in India's forgettable loss in Hyderabad last week, complained of right quadriceps pain, as revealed in a BCCI release.
Sarfaraz's selection comes on the back of a stellar show for India in the four-day unofficial Test match against England Lions at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, where he scored 161 off 166, laced with 18 fours and 5 sixes. He was named the Player of the Match for his performance as India A won by 16 runs.
The 26-year-old has constantly been knocking at the selectors' doors over the last few seasons with his prolific first-class returns. In 45 red-ball matches in his career, Sarfaraz has amassed 3912 runs at an average of 69.85, 14 centuries and 11 fifties. His tally includes a fabulous 2019/20 season in the Ranji Trophy, where he plundered 928 runs and averaged 154.66 to become the tournament’s fifth-highest run-getter, before following it up 982 runs at an average of 122.75 for Mumbai in the 2022/23 season.
Mumbai teammate Suryakumar Yadav was among the first India cricketers to congratulate Sarfaraz on his maiden international call-up. He shared an Instagram story moments after the announcement, bearing the picture of the two, and captioned it: “Happiest here. Man India call up. Utsav ki taiyaarrii karo.” Sarfaraz reposted it on his Instagram handle and added a background music 'Aashayein', from the popular Bollywood movie Iqbal.
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has also been ruled out of the Test match after he suffered a hamstring injury on the fourth day of the first Test in Hyderabad. The selectors hence added two more players to the list - left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar, who was also part of the aforementioned India A game, and allrounder Washington Sundar.
With Rahul out, Shreyas Iyer is more likely to take his No. 4 spot, but one between Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz will be picked for the No. 5 position. Captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid could also opt for both if India replace Jadeja with Kuldeep Yadav.
