Sarfaraz Khan silences selectors with hundred against England Lions for India A in 2nd unofficial test

Sarfaraz Khan hit a 89-ball ton against England Lions in the second unofficial test in Ahmedabad.

While the Indian team is clashing with England in the first Test in Hyderabad, India A side is taking on England Lions in the second four-day unofficial Test and Sarfaraz Khan put the selectors on notice with a confident century.

Josh Bohannan, the Lions captain, won the toss and chose to bat first. But unlike the first match, Indian bowling attack rattled the visiting batters. Akash Deep took 4/46, while Yash Dayal and Washington Sundar took two wickets each as Lions folded for 152 runs. Oliver Price top-scored with 48 runs.

When India A batted, openers Abhimanyu Easwaran and Devdutt Padikkal added 162 runs for the first wicket. Easwaran made 58 runs, while Padikkal hammered 105 in 126 balls with just 17 balls to his name. After them, Tilak Varma (6) and Rinku Singh (0) fell early, but Sarfaraz Khan and Washington Sundar rebuilt the innings.

Sarfaraz Khan takes India to safety with a brilliant century

India A soon slipped from 152-0 to 184-4 as Matthew Potts and Brydon Carse struck twice each. Washington Sundar arrived at this point and dropped anchor at one end as Sarfaraz played his shots. Sarfaraz, who boasts a FC average of 68.20 from 65 innings, took charge and began playing his shots.

For India A, Sarfraz had made only 366 runs from 10 matches at 36.60 with a highest of 71 not out – a relative failure for a man with 13 hundreds in 54 innings in domestic cricket.

But in this innings, Sarfaraz added 169 runs with Sundar, who made 57 runs himself. At the time of writing, Sarfaraz is currently batting on 129* and trying to get India past the 400-run mark along with the tail-enders.

Given his rich vein of form in domestic cricket, Sarfaraz Khan’s absence from the Indian team has been puzzling. To be fair to the selectors, the choice was based on Sarfraz’s performance for India A, the “intermediate” FC level between Indian domestic cricket and Test matches.

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