'Runs in domestic cricket must be valued by the selectors, not just the IPL; otherwise why should anyone bother to play the Ranji.'
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday condemned Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan's exclusion from the India A squad, saying runs in domestic cricket must be valued by the selectors.
Tharoor, a cricket aficionado, also said the selectors are too quick to discard proven talent in order to take a punt on "potential".
Responding to a post which lamented Khan being ignored for the India A series against South Africa A recently, the Congress leader said on 'X': "This is frankly an outrage. Sarfaraz Khan averages 65-plus in first-class cricket, scored a 50 on Test debut and a 150 in a Test we lost, made 92 in his only tour match in England (and a century in the practice match against the full Indian Test team) -- and still finds himself excluded from the selectors' frame of reference."
"I'm also very glad to see Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw and Karun Nair making runs in the Ranji Trophy. Our selectors are too quick to discard proven talent in order to take a punt on 'potential'," Tharoor said.
These are players who have proven themselves over and over again, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.
"Runs in domestic cricket must be valued by the selectors, not just the IPL; otherwise why should anyone bother to play the Ranji," he wondered.
The selectors' decision to omit Khan from the India A team had invited criticism from different quarters and had also become a political issue when Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed stoked a controversy by asking whether the Mumbai batter was not selected "because of his surname".
Khan, who made his Test debut against England in the Rajkot Test of 2023-24 season, was a part of India's tour of Australia late last year but has been ignored for the Test side since then.
The 28-year-old Khan last played in the Mumbai Test against New Zealand for his overall six Test appearances for India.