Legendary Sunil Gavaskar has urged Sarfaraz Khan to take a leaf out of Karun Nair’s book after he was dropped from India’s Test squad for the upcoming Test series. Khan was part of India’s squad for the five-match series against Australia but didn’t get a game in the Border-Gavaskar series.
Khan had broken into India’s Test team after scoring a truckload of runs in the domestic circuit. The youngster has scored 371 runs in six Test matches at an average of 37.1. Khan played his last Test against New Zealand but returned with scores of 0 and 1 on a spin-friendly pitch at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
Gavaskar recalled how Jaydev Unadkat and Karun Nair kept delivering in the domestic after they were dropped from the national squad.
Sunil Gavaskar said on India Today, “Even Jaydev played his first Test at a very young age, and then it took 13 years or so to play another Test. He persevered, he went on picking wickets in domestic cricket. Like Unadkat, Karun has scoring kept on scoring big hundreds. That’s why the selection committee had to bring him back. A man in form is one of your best bets.”
“He is scoring runs, he also got the experience of County Championships. You have to be undropabble. 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.”
Gavaskar said Sarfaraz Khan might not have the rub of the green on his side as he could not play in the Ranji Trophy since he was injured.
“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. 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.”
The opening Test match between India and England will be played at Leeds, Headingley, from June 20 onwards.
