The Sarfaraz Khan temptation is real, but India should resist the urge to drop Jurel before he gets his Test chance

Dhruv Jurel has earned the right to fail on his own terms first. Dropping him before that chance would be India getting this selection call wrong, not him.

There’s a strange selection debate brewing in Indian cricket right now, and the logic behind it doesn’t quite add up. Sarfaraz Khan was added to the Test squad on Monday as cover for the injured Sai Sudharsan ahead of India’s series in Sri Lanka. Barely 48 hours later, there was already a clamour to hand the Mumbai batter the No. 6 spot in the playing XI ahead of Dhruv Jurel.

Who will bat at No. 6 for India in the Sri Lanka Test series?

The strange part is that Sarfaraz wasn’t even in the picture a week ago. He wasn’t part of the Test squad, nor was he included in the India A red-ball tour game in Sri Lanka at the start of last month. That suggests he wasn’t part of the original planning for this series. His return has come because an injury opened up a spot, not because the team suddenly decided he was the preferred option at No. 6.

In fact, the selectors appeared to have moved on from Sarfaraz a year ago when he was left out of the Test squad for England despite scoring 92 in the India A pre-series game. He had made an impressive start to his international career, scoring three fifties in his debut series against England before hitting 150 against New Zealand later in 2024. But a run of low scores in the next two Tests against the Blackcaps, including a duck, followed as India suffered a historic home-series whitewash. He then travelled with the team for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but did not play a single Test.

None of this is to dismiss what Sarfaraz can offer. His biggest advantage is also the reason India have brought him back. He is one of domestic cricket’s better players of spin, comfortable sweeping, quick on his feet and willing to attack when the ball starts turning. The team management is understood to be building its batting approach in Sri Lanka around those qualities. On paper, Sarfaraz fits the conditions extremely well.

But that is a legitimate reason to have him in the squad. It is not, by itself, a compelling reason to have him in the XI ahead of a batter who has been part of the team’s planning.

The case against Jurel right now rests largely on one game — his 1 and 17 in the warm-up match in Colombo. Neither dismissal was particularly convincing, but making too much of a three-day practice game would be unfair. Jurel was hardly the only Indian middle-order batter who failed to make an impact, and one poor outing against opposition that will have little bearing on the Test series is a thin basis for a major selection call.

The part that is getting overlooked is that the selectors had named Jurel as the India A captain for the red-ball tour games that happened last month, and he repaid the faith with a knock of 141 not out and 14 in the first unofficial Test, then 53 in the second. Those are proper runs in these exact conditions. Add a first-class record of over 2,500 runs at an average past 55, and a team management that has already stuck with him through a lean run in the senior side rather than discard him, and you have a batter this set-up has repeatedly chosen to trust. Reversing that trust because of one soft dismissal in a warm-up game would be a strange way to run a Test team.

On the evidence available, Jurel should therefore remain India’s No. 6 when the first Test begins in Galle on August 15.

For Sarfaraz, the India opportunity has arrived unexpectedly. That does not mean his chance is far away. If Jurel struggles again in Galle, particularly if India lose and the series situation demands a change, Sarfaraz’s ability against spin makes him an obvious option.

But making that switch before Jurel has even had the chance to fail in a Test would risk making India look reactive rather than considered.