"They are not gods" - WV Raman on the selectors' thought process for not selecting Sarfaraz Khan for India's West Indies tour

WV Raman has highlighted that the selectors might have had valid reasons for ignoring Sarfaraz Khan for India's tour of the West Indies.

The selectors recently picked the Indian squad for the two Tests and three ODIs against the Windies. Sarfaraz's non-selection in the Test squad drew a lot of criticism from many cricket experts, including legends like Sunil Gavaskar.

In a video shared on Aakash Chopra's YouTube, Raman pointed out that the selectors' reported reasons behind Sarfaraz's omission do not imply that they are considering themselves almighty:

"There were some views expressed supposedly by the selection committee with regards to his (Sarfaraz's) non-inclusion. One of them seems to be that he needs to improve his ability to play against fast bowling and the other thing seems to be that he needs to improve on his fitness and fielding as well."

The former Indian opener added:

"Somebody can turn around and ask me, what is it that they are trying to convey and do they think they are gods. No, they are not gods. They are not trying to really find faults with Sarfaraz Khan."

Raman highlighted that Sarfaraz's omission also does not imply that the Indian Premier (IPL) has taken precedence over domestic first-class tournaments like the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy.

The Mumbai batter, who averages an outstanding 79.65 in 37 first-class games, had a dismal IPL 2023 for the Delhi Capitals, managing just 53 runs in four innings at an average of 13.25 and a strike rate of 85.48.

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"They not only see the numbers" - WV Raman on the selectors' reasons for not selecting Sarfaraz Khan

Sarfaraz Khan's technique against express pace and short-pitched bowling is supposedly questionable.

WV Raman pointed out that selection decisions are not made based on pure numbers:

"What happens generally is that in a selection committee meeting, they not only see the numbers that a cricketer has put up, they also try and discuss about the various things that they might have detected in a cricketer's framework of technique or his attitude, or the perceived ability of a cricketer with regard to international cricket."

The former Indian women's team's head coach added that such calls have been the practice and will continue to be so:

"That's exactly what this committee has done. They feel that Sarfaraz Khan may perhaps not be up to it when it comes to facing international fast bowlers. These kind of judgemental calls are the norm in selection committee meetings. This has been done before, this committee has done it and it will also be done in the future."

However, Raman acknowledged that a counter-argument could be that the selectors could have picked Sarfaraz Khan and checked how he fares against the fast bowlers when thrown into the deep end. He added that such a decision would have perhaps been acceptable to everyone and the player too.