Suryakumar Yadav deserves 100 percent to be in the Test team: Pragyan Ojha 

Former India spinner Pragyan Ojha has opined that Suryakumar Yadav's inclusion in the Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is completely justified. The Mumbai-born batter pipped his state teammate Sarfaraz Khan for a spot in the red-ball team.

The decision to include Suryakumar ahead of the in-form Sarfaraz has baffled several. Sarfaraz responded strongly with yet another ton in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season, continuing his rich vein of form in first-class cricket.

Stating that the former 2016 U-19 World Cup member's maiden call-up will come soon, Ojha said in an interaction with Aakash Chopra on Viacom 18 Sports:

“The way young talent Sarfaraz Khan is performing at the moment. I understand there is temptation and I think his time will come. But Surya deserves a hundred percent to be in the Test team."

The No.1-ranked T20I batter also featured in the Ranji Trophy while Team India were touring Bangladesh. He got into a rhythm right away, scoring two nineties across three innings, after a lengthy interval in red-ball cricket.

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"Why not reward domestic performances? Sarfaraz Khan has been in insane form" - Abhinav Mukund questions Suryakumar Yadav's inclusion

Sarfaraz Khan has scored heavily across the last two editions of the Ranji Trophy. Taking the current season into consideration, he has recorded three hundreds in the group stage of the domestic tournament.

However, his poor record with India A, which included a duck on the tour of Bangladesh, apparently proved to be his downfall.

Opining that Sarfaraz deserves to be included in the squad, former India cricketer Abhinav Mukund said:

"Why not reward domestic performances? Sarfaraz Khan has been in insane form, I would have rewarded him with a cap for the Australia series at least. Suryakumar Yadav is exceptional in the T20 format. They want the same sort of belligerence from him in the Test side. But unfortunately, I’m the guy that follows hierarchy and Sarfaraz should be there."

Team India squad for Australia Tests: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.