Sarfaraz Khan's cryptic 'Don Bradman' message to Indian selectors goes viral

The absence of Sarfaraz Khan from Team India's squad announcement for the first two Tests of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series against Australia at home has been the biggest talking point. Despite his exploits on the domestic circuit over the last three seasons, the youngster has yet to break through, leaving fans and experts enraged and perplexed.

Sarfaraz, too, has been left wondering what else he can do. In a cryptic Instagram post following the team announcement, he gave the selectors a brutal 'Don Bradman' reminder. The Mumbai batter took to Instagram and posted two cryptic messages. The first was his Ranji Trophy stats for Mumbai, which showed 2436 runs scored in 30 innings at a strike rate of 110.73. In the second post, was his career first-class average of 80.47 which is the second-best in the world among batters with at least 50 innings, trailing only Don Bradman.

Here is Sarfaraz Khan's Instagram story

Sarfaraz Khan (Source: Twitter)

The 25-year-old scored 928 runs in six Ranji Trophy in 2019/20 matches at 154.66, with three centuries and two fifties. In the following season, 2021/22, he maintained his superb form, amassing 982 runs at 122.75, including four centuries and two fifties. The streak has continued this season, as he has scored 431 runs at 107.75 with twin centuries and a fifty.

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra had earlier lashed out at selectors, questioning the logic of ignoring Sarfaraz when Suryakumar Yadav was included in the 17-man squad for the Test series.

"Sarfaraz's name is still not there. He feels he got cheated because his name should probably have come. Bumrah is still not there. That's another news but I am more concerned that Sarfaraz is not there," said Aakash on his YouTube channel.

"When you picked Surya, it means a slot had opened up. In my opinion, Sarfaraz should have gotten that chance because Sarfaraz's first-class average is 80. Apart from him, only Don Bradman has an average of 80 or more in the number of matches he has played," Aakash added.