'Fashion Show Hai Kya,' Gavaskar slams BCCI's selection committee for ignoring Sarfaraz and picking Suryakumar for Test series vs AUS

Zee News

Sunil Gavaskar, a legendary cricketer for India, has criticised the selection committee for not choosing Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan for the first two Test matches against Australia. He claims that cricketers should be evaluated solely on their on-field performances and not on the basis of their physical appearance. In domestic cricket, Sarfaraz has scored a lot of runs, particularly in first-class games. He averaged 136.42 runs per game over the last two Ranji Trophy seasons in just 12 games. In a Ranji Trophy Group B match on Tuesday, he scored another century, this one for 125, defeating Delhi. This was the batsman's third century in the current edition of the prestigious tournament and his third first-class century overall, prompting some to wonder why Sarfaraz has yet to receive an India call-up.

Sarfaraz Khan in Ranji trophy since 2019:

71*, 36, 301*, 226*, 25, 78, 177, 6, 275, 63, 48, 165, 153, 40, 59*, 134, 45, 5, 126*, 75, 20, 162, 15*, 28*, 125. pic.twitter.com/C9WqIhriL1

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) January 17, 2023

"If you are looking for only slim and trim guys, then might as well go to a fashion show and find some other models and give a bat and ball in their hands and then improve them. That's not the way cricket goes. You have cricketers in all shapes and sizes. Don't go by the size, go by the scores or wickets. He is not staying off the field when he scores a hundred. He is back on the field again. So, all that tells you is that the man is fit," Gavaskar was quoted as saying by India Today.

Gavaskar went on to say that Sarfaraz isn't unfit as he's bringing out the big hundreds every now and then in the Ranji Trophy. "How can you score runs? I think at the end of the day if you are unfit, you aren't gonna score hundreds. Cricket fitness is the most important thing. Yo-Yo Test can't be the only criterion. You got to make sure that the man is cricket fit as well. If the person, whoever it is, is cricket fit, then I don't think it should be any matter."

Sarfaraz now sits behind only Sir Don Bradman in terms of batting average after 53 first-class innings. Gavaskar concluded by saying that Sarfaraz would soon find his way into India's Test squad.

"At the moment, sometimes he starts to feel frustrated. What do I need to do? He is scoring runs. He scored triple hundred, and double hundreds, people might say he scored against ordinary attacks. I don't know, I didn't see them but then how come the other batsmen in the same team did not get 200 when he scored a triple hundred, or other batsmen did not get a hundred when he got a double hundred? So, for a man or any person who scored these many runs, you have something special to be able to churn out the runs he's doing so consistently. His time is definitely gonna come. I mean, with the scores he is getting, he has to be pretty much in the frame."