Sarfaraz Khan missed out on the Indian squad that was named on Saturday by the BCCI for the five-Test England tour. A new era dawned in Indian cricket, as this was the first time since 2011 that neither of R Ashwin, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will be part of the Indian Test team.

Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan find a spot each in the squad to replace Kohli and Rohit, while Rishabh Pant was named the vice-captain. Sarfaraz Khan, however, was one player who many believed was unjustly left off the team for the five-match Test series against England.

Sarfaraz finally made it to India's Test team after years of arduous domestic red-ball cricket play, making his debut against England in February of last year. But before being dismissed from the team completely, the batter did not participate in any of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy matches against Australia.

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar had some harsh realities to say about the BCCI selection committee, chaired by Ajit Agarkar, dropping Sarfaraz, who also lost 10 kg of weight before the England tour.

"It's tough, that's what cricket is all about. When you get opportunities, you have to make sure the place is yours. Even if you score a hundred, you should make sure that you don't go into your next innings thinking you scored a hundred in the previous knock.

You have to get your eye in and get those runs again. You must not give anybody a chance to push you out of the team. It's entirely up to you to ensure you cement that spot. You need to keep knocking on the doors and break the doors down,” Gavaskar told India Today.

Gavaskar acknowledged that the decision to bench Sarfaraz during the Australia tour was a "tough" one because the batsman was unable to demonstrate his form in domestic cricket due to an ailment.

"I think it's a tough call because after the tour of Australia, there was no red-ball cricket. Yes, there was the Ranji Trophy, but he was injured. So, he didn't play. There was no way he could show what his form was. You have to be undroppable. We have seen in the past, if a team loses a series, the guys who are 13th, 14th, 15th in the squad get dropped. You have to take your chances," he added.

In the press conference on Saturday, Agarkar said that Sarfaraz was dropped from the team as he 'didn't get runs' after the New Zealand ton.

"Sometimes you just have to make good decisions. Sarfaraz, I know he got a 100 in the first Test (vs New Zealand) and then didn't get runs. Sometimes it's the decisions the team management takes. Whether it's fair on somebody or unfair on someone, those are the choices that you make in the best interest of the team," Agarkar had said.