May 30, 2025 12:18 PM IST
Did the buzz around Karun Nair’s performances lead to Sarfaraz Khan and Shreyas Iyer’s ousters?
When the India A team takes on the England Lions starting today at Canterbury, Sarfaraz Khan will have a point to prove to the selectors who dropped him from India’s senior Test squad. He and Shreyas Iyer were the two notable omissions as chairman of the BCCI’s selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, unveiled India’s 18-member squad that will tour England to play five Tests, beginning June 20 at Headingley, Leeds.
No one, barring the selectors and head coach Gautam Gambhir, is aware of the nuances behind the decision-making, more so because with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s retirements, two slots are up for grabs. Iyer and Sarfaraz, both of whom played for India as recently as last year, were supposed to be automatic picks, but clearly, the selection committee thought otherwise and went in a different direction. Karun Nair was recalled after a gap of eight years, and Sai Sudharsan earned his maiden Test call-up, leaving Sarfaraz and Iyer in the dark.
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‘The buzz is around Karun Nair’
However, one factor that could have led to their undoing, reckons former India pacer Atul Wassan, is a perception that neither can play well in England. Sarfaraz is yet to play a Test match for India overseas – he has only featured in six Tests since his emotional debut last year – whereas Iyer has played three Tests in SENA nations, scoring 75 runs. So yeah, while there is no guarantee that Sudharsan and Nair will succeed, it was guaranteed that Sarfaraz and Iyer wouldn’t have, believes Wassan.
“Sarfaraz made three fifties and a hundred but did not get a single chance in Australia, and it’s some sort of perception that the player won’t perform. Similarly, Shreyas Iyer did not get selected because some believe he hasn’t done good in red-ball cricket. And also, the buzz is around Karun Nair. Sometimes, the team goes with the inner feeling and forecasts a particular player’s performance based on that,” he said on the 12th episode of the Bails and Banter show on OTTPlay.
