Former India star Sanjay Manjrekar took India head coach Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar, the BCCI's Chairman of Selectors for the Men's cricket team, to task for trying to pre-empt the performances of players while selecting the India squad, none more than recent ones picked for the England tour starting June 20, 2025. Manjrekar highlighted the disturbing trend while pointing out Sarfaraz Khan's surprising omission from the Test squad. The selectors decided to pick Karun Nair and Sai Sudharshan in the 18-member squad, and Sarfaraz became the obvious casualty.

"In the current leadership of Agarkar and Gautam Gambhir with a new captain obviously having the least say, I am seeing a style of selection which is quite interesting and slightly disturbing. Under Gambhir’s stewardship and with Rohit not there anymore, I see a tendency in this management to pre-empt performances of individuals while making selections. As in, the dominating thought here is to apply their own view of the likely success and failure of players depending on conditions and opposition," Manjrekar wrote in his column for Hindustan Times.

Sarfaraz last played for India in the home series against New Zealand, where he scored a brilliant 150 in the first Test in Bengaluru. The second and third Test saw him not score too many, but neither did the rest of the Indian batting. India's next Test assignment was against Australia in their backyard, but the 27-year-old failed to make it to the playing XI in any of the five Test matches.

"Take the example of Sarfraz Khan. Three fifties and a 150 at home in four Tests and failures in only four innings after that and Sarfaraz does not get a single game in Australia. For the England tour too, he has been left out despite his performances in recent times outweighing Karun Nair’s completely. So, this non-selection is not about performance, it’s about someone important in the leadership group thinking Sarfaraz will not get runs in England and Australia, and Karun Nair will," the 59-year-old rightly pointed out.

"This may well turn out to be true but it’s a real shot in the dark, isn’t it? Over the years this game has surprised us umpteen times when players have over performed when we haven’t expected much from them. Nitish Kumar Reddy in Australia, for example," he argued.

Shubman Gill was appointed as the new Test captain for India after Rohit Sharma decided to retire from the longest form of the game. Whether or not it was a forced retirement is for another day, but picking Gill to lead came as a surprise to many. Even more so when his place in the playing XI was not guaranteed in the last series against Australia. Talking about Gill's appointment as captain for India, Manjrekar feels that the selectors have placed a huge bet on the 25-year-old India batter and something that Gambhir possibly would not have objected to, especially after Rohit's departure.

"The selector has in fact placed a huge bet on Gill the captain. Can’t help but feel Gambhir would not have objected to this, rather have a young, rookie captain than a senior great (Bumrah) to deal with as captain, especially after Rohit," he stated.

Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Sports, Cricket, IPL 2025, IPL Points Table, IPL Orange Cap, IPL Purple Cap and around the world.