Sarfaraz Khan earned his maiden India call-up on Monday (January 29) after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) added him alongside Sourabh Kumar and Washington Sundar to India's Test squad for the ongoing five-match series against England.
The right-handed batter got the opportunity after aggregating plenty of runs in the domestic arena consistently. The 26-year-old batter wields an enviable domestic record and, hence, his inclusion in the Test team doesn't come across as a surprise to anyone.
The Mumbai batter has amassed 3912 runs in 45 first-class matches. He averages 69.85 in the arena and has a triple hundred (301*) to his credit which he scored against Uttar Pradesh in a Ranji Trophy, Group B fixture (Elite) back in January 2020 at Wankhede in Mumbai.
The middle-order batter has already notched up 14 tons and 11 half-centuries and has not lost his appetite for runs.
Notably, the news of Sarfaraz's India selection spread like wildfire and brought merriment to cricket fans in India and Pakistan. Pakistan's opening batter Imam-Ul-Haq took to the social media platform 'X' (formerly Twitter) to extend his warm wishes to Sarfaraz and numerous other Pakistanis also congratulated Sarfraz for his achievement.
"Congratulations brother so happy for you," Imam captioned his post.
India squad for 2nd Test:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Saurabh Kumar.
England squad:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, Jack Leach, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson, Daniel Lawrence, Gus Atkinson
Support Staff:
Brendon McCullum, Paul Collingwood, Marcus Trescothick, Jeetan Patel, Neil Killeen
