Sarfaraz Khan gives selectors brutal 'Don Bradman' reminder in cryptic message after being ignored for Australia Tests
Hurt by the repeated snub, 25-year-old Sarfaraz Khan gave the selectors a brutal ‘Don Bradman’ reminder in a cryptic post on Instagram after the team announcement
The biggest talking point of Team India's squad announcement for the first two Tests of the impending Border-Gavaskar series against Australia at home has been the absence of Sarfaraz Khan. Despite his exploits in domestic circuit over the last three seasons, the youngster continues to be denied the breakthrough, leaving fans and experts furious and puzzled. Sarfaraz too has been left questioning what more he can do. Hurt by the repeated snub, the 25-year-old gave the selectors a brutal ‘Don Bradman’ reminder in a cryptic post on Instagram after the team announcement.
In 2019/20 Ranji Trophy season, Sarfaraz scored 928 runs in six matches at 154.66 with three centuries and two fifties. In the following season of 2021/22, he continued his sublime form to amass 982 runs at 122.75 with four centuries and two fifties. The run continued this season as well where he has so far scored 431 runs at 107.75 with twin tons and a fifty.
Despite the consistency in his exploits in the red-ball format, Sarfaraz has repeatedly failed to be selected for the Indian team. And on Saturday, the Mumbai batter took to Instagram to share two cryptic posts. In the first was his Ranji Trophy stats for Mumbai, showing 2436 runs scored in 30 innings at 110.73. In the second post, it showed his career first-class average of 80.47, which is the second-best in the world, among batters with at least 50 innings, after the greatest ever, Don Bradman.
Earlier on Saturday, former India cricketers Aakash Chopra had lashed out at selectors as well, questioning the logic behind ignoring Sarfaraz when a Suryakumar Yadav was made to fit into the 17-member squad for the Test series.
"Sarfaraz's name is still not there. He feels he got cheated because his name should probably have come. Bumrah is still not there. That's another news but I am more concerned that Sarfaraz is not there," said Aakash on his YouTube channel.
"When you picked Surya, it means a slot had opened up. In my opinion, Sarfaraz should have gotten that chance because Sarfaraz's first-class average is 80. Apart from him, only Don Bradman has an average of 80 or more in the number of matches he has played," Aakash added.