"Deserves Another Chance": Ex-India Captain Bats For Sarfaraz Khan, Sends Clear Message To BCCI
Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin called for Sarfaraz Khan to be given another opportunity to play for India.
Sarfaraz Khan has been in sensational form in every format recently. The 28-year-old smashed a 22-ball 73 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, a 157 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and recently a double century for Mumbai in the ongoing Ranji Trophy. Following the double hundred, Sarfaraz credited former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin for the latter's advice on how to play reverse swing. Azharuddin, meanwhile, called for Sarfaraz to be given another opportunity to play for India. Sarfaraz's last India appearance came over a year ago.
Sarfaraz had reportedly spent 45 minutes waiting at Azharuddin's residence before spending two hours interacting with him on how to improve his game.
Azharuddin urged the Ajit Agarkar-led Indian selection committee to back Sarfaraz once again.
"He (Sarfaraz) deserves another chance to play for India. He has scored runs everywhere, and India needs good attacking players. If you are scoring runs but you still don't get a chance, it gets very disappointing. But I'm sure he will get it very soon," Azharuddin said, speaking to Sportstar.
"He is a good, attacking player who can change the situation of a game very quickly. He doesn't like being dominated by the bowler. As a batsman, you need to score runs. If you allow a good bowler to dominate, you are in trouble. I don't know how the pitch was, but I believe the ball was swinging and the bounce was variable. So for him to score at a good rate underlines his quality," Azharuddin said, speaking on Sarfaraz.
Sarfaraz smashed 329 runs in just seven matches in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at a strike-rate of 203. He then slammed 303 runs at a strike-rate of over 190.
The 28-year-old has so far played six Test matches for India, after which he has found himself out of the red-ball side. He is set to play for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL 2026.
India Cricket Team