"He should have been playing for India at the moment" - Dilip Vengsarkar on Sarfaraz Khan

Sarfaraz Khan has over 700 runs in this Ranji Trophy season in 4 games.

Sarfaraz Khan I Twitter

Former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar has batted for Mumbai-batter Sarfaraz Khan's inclusion in the national team based on his run with the bat in the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2022. He added that he was surprised to see the selectors’ inability to recognize the 24-year-old batter's talent.

In the 2021-2022 season of the Ranji Trophy, Sarfaraz has collected a staggering 704 runs in 5 innings, at a jaw-dropping average of 140.80, with scores of 275, 63, 48, 165, and 153.

The right-handed explosive batter has been in sensational form in India's premier first-class cricket tournament since the 2019/20 season, in which he scored 928 runs in nine innings at an average of over 150.

Vengsarkar was quoted by Khaleej Times as saying: "He should have been playing for India at the moment. He has scored tons of runs every time (in Ranji Trophy). And if the selectors are still not convinced, then I am really surprised. What else can he do to get into the Indian squad? Every year, he has scored more than 800 runs for Mumbai." 

Vengsarkar, who was the chairman of the selection committee that gave a teenage Virat Kohli his first international break, feels that Sarfaraz is a talented batter who can play for long and is capable of winning matches consistently.

"I have seen him since he was 12. He is a street-smart cricketer. He is always hungry for success. He is very fit and the most important thing is that he can play long innings. He has the ability to win matches, which is very rare in batsmen. He has scored runs against pace, against spin. So what else can he do? He is scoring runs consistently. Once he hits the fourth gear, he is a treat to watch.

"He is an improviser. And you need somebody to accelerate the scoring rate. A batsman like him helps the team because he keeps the scoreboard moving all the time."

Vengsarkar, who played 116 Test matches for the Indian team and scored 6,868 runs along with 17 centuries, further called for the re-inclusion of the Duleep Trophy into India's domestic cricket calendar.

He added that he felt it should be made compulsory for the Indian Test players to partake in the prestigious tournament.

"If they (selectors) are not convinced (about Sarfaraz), then what I would do is to request the BCCI to have the Duleep Trophy on a zonal basis, and make sure that all Test players are available to play. So that they can see the young talent against India's best bowlers and batters."

"Now they have made Duleep Trophy into red, blue and green teams, which is not the way to go forward. So make Duleep Trophy zonal again and bring the senior players for a month. They will give the young players in Ranji Trophy a great exposure to play against the best players in the Duleep Trophy."

(Khaleej Times inputs)

 
 

By Hritwik Chakraborty - 12 Jun, 2022

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