Sarfaraz Khan's batting heroics more prodigious than his waistline: Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar has criticised the Indian cricket team's obsession with fitness, claiming it has led to the exclusion of talented players like Sarfaraz Khan in the past. Gavaskar argues that performance on the field should be prioritised over waist size.

In Short

• Gavaskar criticises Indian cricket's focus on fitness over talent
• Sarfaraz' exclusion from the team due to waist size in the past was questioned by Gavaskar
• Gavaskar said that yoyo-yoyo tests should be discarded

Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at Indian cricket's obsession with the fitness of the players and claimed that someone like Sarfaraz Khan was often the victim of this. Despite being a run machine for Mumbai in the domestic circuit, Sarfaraz always seemed to be shunned when it came to the Indian Test team selection. This would finally end during the England series earlier in the year and Sarfaraz has since go on to make a big splash in the international stage.

The 26-year-old scored a magnificent 150 in the second innings for India in the Bengaluru Test to give them some hope of a comeback. Writing in his column for Sportstar, Gavaskar claimed that Sarfaraz missing out on a spot in the team earlier was done because he didn't have a 'slim waist' according to the selectors.

The cricket legend would claim that Sarfaraz's returns with thye bat were 'more prodigious than his waistline' and slammed the ideas of the selectors to keep fitness as top most criteria.

"Sarfaraz Khan has been denied a place in the Indian team for some years now, despite scoring runs by the hundreds in domestic cricket. This was largely because those in a position to make decisions believed he didn’t have the slim waist they deemed necessary for international cricket. Sarfaraz’s returns on the field with the bat were even more prodigious than his waistline. Sadly, Indian cricket has had too many decision-makers with ideas that are hard to fathom," said Gavaskar.

'Discard these yoyo-yoyo tests'

Gavaskar also pointed out that Pant is also someone without a slim waist but has made an incredible impact for the team. The cricket legend called for the yoyo-yoyo tests to be discarded and wants players to be assessed mentally.

"Rishabh Pant is another player who doesn’t possess the slim waist that these fitness purists seem to want, but what an impact player he is. Let’s not forget that he also keeps wickets all day, which not only requires getting up and down for around six hours of play but also running to the stumps to gather the throws. So, please discard these yoyo-yoyo tests and instead assess how strong a player is mentally. That will be a true indicator of a player’s fitness. If a player can bat the whole day or bowl 20 overs in a day, he is match-fit, regardless of how slim or not his waist is," said Gavaskar.

India will next be in action against New Zealand in Pune for the second Test from October 24.