Gayle Slams Indian Selectors Over Sarfaraz’s Non-Selection: ‘Using His Weight Against Him…’ | Cricket News

Last Updated:September 08, 2025, 16:58 IST

Chris Gayle praises Sarfaraz Khan, calling him a favourite and backing his inclusion in India’s Test team despite fitness concerns.

Sarfaraz Khan was in good form in the Buchi Babu Tournament. (PC: PTI)

Former West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle has said that Sarfaraz Khan is one of his favourite Indian cricketers and the youngster deserves a place in the Indian Test team, adding that he also lost a lot of weight to maintain fitness, but that shouldn’t be used against him.

Sarfaraz scored 150 against New Zealand in October in a marathon knock, but following scores of 11, 9, 0 and 1, he didn’t find a place in the playing XI for the five-Test series against Australia and warmed the bench.

Sarfaraz wasn’t named in the squad for the five-Test series against England but did manage to score 92 against the England Lions ahead of the big series.

“Sarfaraz should be on the Test side. He should be in the Test squad at least, you know, scored a century at home, not in the squad. I saw a post a couple of days ago. He lost weight,” Gayle said while speaking on Subhankar Mishra’s podcast.

“The weight was not even; nothing was wrong with his weight or anything. He is just fine. He was still scoring runs; the man scored triple centuries in first-class cricket. So if they’re using that against him, that’s sad, you know,” Gayle said.

“They should never use that against him. That youngster should have been a part of the squad 100%,” Gayle added.

Sarfaraz went back to his basics and played the Kanga League in Mumbai as well as the Buchi Babu Trophy in Tamil Nadu. He scored two hundreds in the latter, but just ahead of the Duleep Trophy, he injured his quadriceps.

Sarfaraz is nursing the injury now and was thus not named in the India A squad that will take on Australia A in two four-day games later this month.

It is expected that Sarfaraz will be named in India’s Test squad for the long home Test season, especially with the No. 3 spot up for grabs, following Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan’s average outings in England.

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