Rajat Patidar was preferred over Sarfaraz Khan after Virat Kohli pulled out of the first two Tests.
Ahead of the series opener, the hosts suffered a big blow as star batter Virat Kohli withdrew his name from the squad for the first two matches due to personal reasons.
Madhya Pradesh batter Rajat Patidar has joined the team as Kohli's replacement for the first two Tests against England. He was preferred over the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Sarfaraz Khan.
However, the decision to overlook Sarfaraz hasn’t gone down well with former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan.
Notably, Sarfaraz has been a prolific run-scorer in First-Class cricket over the last few seasons. The Mumbai batter averages 68.20 in First-Class cricket after 44 matches with 3751 runs to his name, including 13 hundreds and 11 half-centuries.
On the eve of the England Test series, Pathan took to social media platform X and shared Sarfaraz’s domestic stats with the caption, “If you are him and not getting selected for test cricket,what are you thinking???”
Here’s how the fans reacted to Irfan Pathan’s tweet:
Sarfaraz Khan is currently representing India ‘A’ in the three four-day matches against England Lions. The right-hander scored 96 runs in the two-day practice match and returned with scores of 4 and 55 in the first four-day fixture.
On the other hand, Rajat Patidar slammed 111 in the two-day practice match and followed it with scores of 151 and 4 in the four-day game in Ahmedabad.