Why wasn’t Sarfaraz Khan picked in India’s squad for ENG vs IND 2025 Tests?

A big name that went missing in India’s recently announced squad for the upcoming five-game Test tour of England was Sarfaraz Khan. He had been in the news for his efforts to gain fitness before the squad announcement, however, he was dropped.

Notably, Sarfaraz lost nearly 10 kgs of weight and gained tremendous fitness just weeks before the BCCI was to announce the Test squad. The 27-year-old has played six Tests so far in his international career, of which three have come against England.

The Mumbai-born player has 371 runs from these games, including a century and three fifties, with his highest score of 150 coming against New Zealand. While he hit his maiden international ton against the Kiwis, all his half-centuries have come against the Englishmen.

During a press conference, while presenting India’s 18-man squad for the England tour, chief selector Ajit Agarkar spoke about Sarfaraz Khan’s exclusion, saying (via Firstpost):

“Sometimes you just have to make good decisions. Sarfaraz, I know he got a 100 in the first Test and then didn’t get runs. Sometimes it’s decisions the team management takes."

The selection committee instead named Karun Nair in the squad, who returns to the setup for the first time since 2019. Notably, Nair is only the second Indian cricketer after Virender Sehwag to hit a triple ton in Tests.

“At the moment, Karun has scored heaps of runs in domestic, has played a bit of Test cricket, played a bit of county cricket. With Virat not there, clearly we’re lacking a bit of experience. We felt his experience could help,” Agarkar added.

Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee names Shubman Gill as India’s new Test skipper

Leading the press conference on Saturday, May 24, chief selector Ajit Agarkar named Shubman Gill as Rohit Sharma’s successor in the Test format. Notably, the former India Test captain announced his retirement from the format earlier in May 2025.

Gill will now lead a new-look Indian team, with several new faces getting an opportunity after Rohit and Virat Kohli’s retirement from red-ball cricket. Speaking on Gill’s appointment, Agarkar said:

“We discussed every option that’s there, over the last year or so, we’ve looked at Shubman at various times. Taken a lot of feedback from the dressing room. Very young, but there’s been improvement. We’re hopeful he’s the guy. He’s a terrific player, our best wishes to him. You don’t pick captains for one tour or two tours. We’ve seen some progress over the last year or two with him. No doubt it’s going to be as tough as it gets.”

Here’s India’s squad for the five-match Test series against England:

Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sai Sudharsan, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav