Srinagar: Middle order batter Sarfaraz Khan was dropped as BCCI announced the India squad for the England Test series on Saturday.
The squad was announced by Chief selector Ajit Agarkar who admitted that it’s always tough to fill in big holes left by retirements of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Karun Nair, who’s handed a Test call-up after seven years on the back of consistent performances in domestic cricket, has been backed by Agarkar to come good in England after getting the nod ahead of Sarfaraz Khan.
“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 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 said.
“At the moment, we felt Karun has put up heaps of runs over the last couple of seasons. He’s played a little bit of Test cricket early in his career, has played a bit of county cricket. We feel that he’s batting well enough. Also now with Virat not there, clearly lacking a little bit of experience in the batting. Jaiswal is touring [England] for the first time. I know Gill has played one Test match [there]. It’s only KL and Pant who have played a series there before. So we felt Nair’s experience could help. Sometimes it is going to be unfair on somebody else but eventually you’ve got to make choices.”