After Sarfaraz Khan slammed his maiden Test ton against New Zealand, his performance reignited a flurry of discussions about his selection and the criteria used by selectors to pick the Indian national cricket team. Several fans and netizens took to social media to express their support for Sarfaraz and reminded the selectors of legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar's earlier comments about his selection.

Sarfaraz, who has been a consistent performer in first-class cricket, silenced his critics by smashing his maiden Test ton. It was a moment that he, along with his supporters, had been eagerly awaiting for a long time. However, his selection to the national team was anything but easy. Despite racking up impressive numbers in domestic cricket, he was often overlooked. This led many to question why he wasn't given a consistent spot in the national side.

Sunil Gavaskar, in particular, took a dig at the selectors for their fixation on fitness standards. Gavaskar's comments resurfaced with Sarfaraz's achievement.

“If you are looking for only slim and trim guys, then might as well go to a fashion show and find some other models and give a bat and ball in their hands and then improve them. That’s not the way cricket goes.” “You have cricketers in all shapes and sizes. Don’t go by the size, go by the scores or wickets. He is not staying off the field when he scores a hundred. He is back on the field again. So, all that tells you is that the man is fit,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying by India Today last year.

How can you score runs? I think at the end of the day if you are unfit, you aren’t gonna score hundreds.” “Cricket fitness is the most important thing. Yo-Yo Test can’t be the only criterion. You got to make sure that the man is cricket fit as well. If the person, whoever it is, is cricket fit, then I don’t think it should be any matter,” he added.

After his memorable knock, Sarfaraz became the 9th Indian to score a century in the second innings after getting for 0 in the first innings of a Test match. He joins the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, and Virat Kohli on this elite list.

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