Former Indian national cricket team batsman Kris Srikkanth has shared his views on KL Rahul replacing Sarfaraz Khan in the Test starting XI for the upcoming series against the Bangladesh national cricket team.
Sarfaraz Khan impressed everyone in his debut series against England earlier this year and showed great temperament. He batted with an aggressive intent and scored three half-centuries for the team.
In his debut match, he scored two fifties (62 and 68*) before failing in the next test (14 and 0), only to bounce back strongly with a fifty (56) in the final test.
While Sarfaraz Khan has all the tools to succeed in different conditions, he will lose his place in the Test starting XI to KL Rahul, with India giving preference to a more experienced batsman, who has been a consistent performer.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has all but confirmed that Sarfaraz Khan will be dropped from the starting XI when they announced that the Mumbai batsman would feature in the second round of the 2024 Duleep Trophy.
Also Read: IND vs BAN: Sarfaraz Khan replaced by KL Rahul in India XI for Bangladesh’s first Test, confirms BCCI
In the first round of the Duleep Trophy, Sarfaraz Khan scored 9 and 46 runs for India B against India A. In total, he has played 3 Test matches in his career and has scored 200 runs at an average of 50.
I honestly feel bad for Sarfaraz Khan, but this happens sometimes in Test cricket. – Kris Srikkanth
In a YouTube show, World Cup-winning spinner Kris Srikkanth said he feels bad for Sarfaraz as he will have to warm the bench despite having done nothing wrong. He also spoke about Dhruv Jurel, who is also likely to lose his place in the playing XI to Rishabh Pant.
However, Kris Srikkanth was in favour of giving KL Rahul a chance due to his records, especially in overseas conditions in Test cricket.
“Honestly, I feel bad for Sarfaraz Khan. But this happens sometimes in Test cricket. One might have been playing well but when a big player comes back, he will have to lose his place. Take Rishabh Pant’s return for example, so Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan are losing their places. KL Rahul is coming in.
“In the back of their minds, they also have the Australia series in mind. New Zealand is also coming up. KL Rahul has performed well overseas; in Australia, he has done well,” Srikkanth said.
The last time KL Rahul played a Test match for India was in Hyderabad against England earlier this year. In that match, he recorded scores of 86 and 22 before being ruled out of the rest of the series.
In total, KL Rahul has played 50 Test matches for the Indian national cricket team and has scored 2863 runs at a decent average of 34.08, along with 8 tons and 14 fifties. At home, he has scored 1031 Test runs at an average of 41.24, and away from home, he has scored 1832 runs at an average of 31.05.
