Sarfaraz Khan has not been selected for the West Indies series.
India have announced their squad for the series against West Indies, marking Shubman Gill’s maiden home assignment as Test captain. While most of the team is on the expected lines, a notable omission is Sarfaraz Khan, who is always in contention in the longest format.
The reason for his absence is a quadriceps injury, which he sustained while playing in the Buchi Babu Tournament. Since then, he missed the Duleep Trophy 2025 and was working at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) to regain full fitness.
Initially, a few reports suggested that Sarfaraz would be fit by 29 September and be in contention for a spot in the national side for the West Indies rubber. However, Ajit Agarkar confirmed that he has not fully recovered from the injury and will continue to remain out of action for more time.
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That is also why he was excluded from the Irani Cup, where he was supposed to feature for the Rest of India. This injury comes at the worst possible time, as India had a slot vacant in the middle order and could have tried Sarfaraz in that position, or at least selected him in the squad after his impressive home record.
In the latest development, some reports suggest that Sarfaraz Khan will return to action in the Ranji Trophy next month. His domestic side, Mumbai, will begin the campaign with a fixture against Jammu and Kashmir on October 15.
That suggests Sarfaraz will have the opportunity to impress in the opening round of the prestigious tournament and press a case for national selection for the home series against South Africa. He has been a consistent performer in the competition and will look to make the job arduous for selectors.
However, the road ahead is a bit hard for Sarfaraz, given that the team has selected Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal for middle-order roles. They also have Nitish Kumar Reddy and Dhruv Jurel, with the latter capable of playing solely as a batter due to his superior skill set.
The selectors would want to give an extended run to Sudharsan and Padikkal, both of whom have impressed at various stages lately in the domestic arena and been in superb form. For Sarfaraz, the doors are not closed, but the team would require him to show improvements, especially against pace bowling, in the Ranji Trophy before rethinking about him.
Shubman Gill (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, N Jagadeesan
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