Sarfaraz Khan, a bulky Mumbai batsman, finally earned a call up to the Indian team for the second Test against England after batter KL Rahul and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja were out due to injury.
Sarfaraz, Saurabh Kumar and Washington Sundar have been added to India’s squad, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a statement.
A prolific scorer in domestic cricket, Sarfaraz has been knocking on the selectors’ door for the past three years.
With a staggering first class average of 69.85 in 45 matches, Sarfaraz, who has scored 3912 runs and hit 14 hundreds, has been India’s best batsman in domestic cricket.
But a place in the India’s Test team remained elusive for the Mumbai player, despite calls for his selection from several Indian legends, including Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar.
Finally, the 26-year-old right-handed batter got into the Indian squad for the second Test against England after the home team lost the nail-biting first Test by 28 runs in Hyderabad on Sunday.
India is due to play England in the second of the five-match series in Visakhapatnam starting Friday.
Sarfaraz will now be competing for a place in the playing eleven with Rajat Patidar (first-class record: 55 matches, 4000 runs, 100s 12, average 45.97).
Both batsmen hit brilliant hundreds in the unofficial Test Test series between India A and England Lions.
But Sarfaraz has a far better record in domestic cricket.
If Indian team management decides to drop the out–of-form Shubman Gill, both Sarfaraz and Patidar could end up making their India debut in the second Test.
India Test squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, K.S. Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Avesh Khan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Saurabh Kumar.