Sarfaraz Khan scored a duck in the first innings of the third Test against New Zealand at the Wankhede stadium. Apart from his 150 in the second innings of the opening game in Bengaluru, the right-handed batter has been a big disappointment.
However, former player Sanjay Manjrekar blamed Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir for the young batter’s latest failure.
His batting order was changed, with Ravindra Jadeja getting a preference over him. Actually, the team management wanted to keep left and right combination in the middle and decided to hold back Sarfaraz.
Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant hit fifties to keep India in the game before the latter was dismissed by Ish Sodhi. He was replaced by Jadeja and not Sarfaraz.
Manjrekar didn’t like the move and lambasted the decision makers.
“A guy in form, has 3 fifties in his first 3 Tests, gets 150 in the Bangalore Test, a good player of spin, pushed back in the order to keep left & right combination?? Makes no sense. Sarfraz now walking in at no 8! Poor call by India,” Sanjay Manjrekar wrote on X.
Meanwhile, it was Sarfaraz’s second duck in the series, having registered his first in the Bengaluru Test. In the second match in Pune, he amassed 11 and 9.
He will travel to Australia for a five-Test series against the Pat Cummins-led team in November.
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