The furore over Sarfaraz Khan's snub from India A squad for the home series against South Africa A took an ugly turn with politicians getting involved, apart from the usual outrage from the fans and the media. Sarfaraz, who returned scores of 42 and 32 in the opening game of the new season of the Ranji Trophy, returning from a quadriceps injury, will be keen to pile on a lot more runs in the upcoming games and his Mumbai skipper Shardul Thakur backed the middle-order batter to still be in the mix for a recall in Tests for the Indian team.
“Nowadays, for the India A side, they look at boys, who they want to prepare for international cricket. Sarfaraz doesn’t need India A game to play international cricket. If he gets back to scoring again, he can straight away go and play Test series also,” Shardul was quoted as saying by Sportstar ahead of Mumbai's second-round game against Chhattisgarh in BKC, starting Saturday.
The official word from the BCCI with respect to Sarfaraz's omission was that he was returning from an injury and that he needed some game time in domestic cricket before being considered for India A. Hence, Sarfaraz has a couple of games to show and prove that the injury break didn't affect his appetite for scoring runs and with India still searching for a couple of spots in the batting order, the door might still be open for him.
"He is a senior pro and whenever we put him in there, he is someone who always delivers in crunch situations. He has big scores of 200-250s, and those innings have come when the team was two or three down quite early in the inning. So, to play that kind of innings under pressure, you have to have something special in you.
"He is one of the special players who never disappoints to perform and put up big scores. He has done it for years and years. Regardless of which number he bats, I think he will deliver," the Mumbai captain further said, while also confirming that there will not be any change in batting order, with suggestions of him moving up to No 3 to compete for that slot.
Mumbai began their campaign with a solid win against the Jammu and Kashmir and will be keen to continue their winning momentum against Chhattisgarh as well.
