The curious case of Sarfaraz Khan

RCB — Image Source : BCCI
Sarfaraz Khan is not performing as per his price tag at all. He managed to score just 51 runs in seven matches this year.

Royal Challengers Bangalore have been knocked out of the 11th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) by Rajasthan Royals and thus have disappointed their fans yet again with playing inconsistent cricket throughout the season. The Bengaluru-based franchise has been totally depended on its skipper Virat Kohli and star campaigner AB de Villiers this season. RCB won the matches only when the duo or one of them performed well.

Despite being one of the most popular teams in the history of the IPL, RCB have never won the title in 11 seasons of the cash-rich league. They have always been criticised for money they spent on the players during the auction; be it Yuvraj Singh (14 Cr) in 2014 auction or Tymal Mills (12 Cr) in 2017 auction. This year the RCB management shocked everyone when they retained uncapped batsman Sarfaraz Khan over explosive hitters Chris Gayle and KL Rahul.

Sarfaraz Khan is the part of the RCB team since 2015, however, he has managed to play just 25 matches for the franchise so far. In 2015 and 2016, he caught the attention of everyone by playing some crucial cameos for the team. Unfortunately, he was out from the 2017 edition of IPL due to an injury.

It was surprising for everyone when he was retained this year along with Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers at a whopping amount of Rs 3 crore.

Despite having retained him, RCB didn't include him in the playing XI for many matches that makes a questionable remark on the future of the 20-year-old batsman.

Khan is not performing as per his price tag at all. He managed to score just 51 runs in seven matches this year. The RCB management needs to find out what is going wrong for him as other young Indians like Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill have proved their worth this year.