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Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar opined that Sarfaraz Khan can make his debut in the third Test of the ongoing five-match series against England at Rajkot starting from Thursday.
The commentator asserted India has an inexperienced batting line-up in the Test series against England so to strengthen their side the team should bring in Sarfaraz Khan, who he termed as a great player of spin. "Yes, inexperienced batting lineup, but I think the quality that's needed in this particular series are just Indian batters who play spin well. There's where you think Sarfaraz Khan suddenly makes his case very strong. I would want Rajat Patidar as the incumbent to take that place at number four and then have Sarfaraz Khan coming at number five only on the basis that he was in the queue before," Manjrekar was quoted as saying to ESPNCricinfo. The 58-year-old further stated that Sarfaraz Khan would be an interesting batter for India to challenge the England spinners. "The form that he's had over the long term should count for something and have more weightage than Devdutt Padikkal, who had a great run of late. Enough indication that Sarfaraz Khan would be an interesting batter for India to have to challenge the English spinners. The better player of spin plays. I don't think Padikkal being a left-hander will just further his case because India has Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Yashasvi Jaiswal," the former right hand batter added. Sarfaraz's surge to international level has been much anticipated by fans, who have kept an eye on his domestic cricket form. He has been thriving in first-class cricket, most notably the Ranji Trophy, where he top-scored in 2021-22 with 982 runs in six matches, placed fifth in the 2019-20 season with 928 runs in six matches, scoring well in the 2022-23 season as well with 556 runs in six matches. In the unofficial Test series of three matches against England Lions that earlier happened side-by-side with the series between senior sides, Sarfaraz did well for India A, scoring 96 in a Tour match then 4, 55 and 161 in two unofficial Tests. In 45 first-class matches, Sarfaraz scored 3,912 runs at an average of 69.85, with 14 centuries and 11 fifties, with the best score being 301*. On the other hand, in 31 first-class games, Padikkal has scored 2,227 runs at an average of 44.54, with six centuries and 12 fifties in 53 innings. His best score is 193. The batter is on a century-scoring spree, recently scoring 151 & 36 for Karnataka against Tamil Nadu in the ongoing Ranji Trophy. He also smashed 193 and 103 against Punjab and Goa, respectively. The left-handed batter also produced scores of 105, 65, and 21 for India A against England Lions. As of late, he has been in a fine form at India A/domestic level. Heading into the third Test India will be without the experienced wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul as the player was ruled out of the match. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday named Devdutt Padikkal as Rahul's replacement for the third Test. India's updated Squad for the third Test: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), KS Bharat (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal. (ANI)
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