Sarfaraz Khan joins Sachin Tendulkar, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill in elite list after making Test debut in Rajkot

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Sarfaraz Khan's long wait for India debut came to an end after being named in the India squad for the third Test in Rajkot. The Mumbai batter received his debut cap before the start of the Test as his father broke into tears.

The 26-year-old also joined an elite list of players including Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kamble, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill with his India debut. The right-hand batter has the sixth best first-class average among India batters at the time of his Test debut.

Vinod Kamble leads the list with a first-class average of 88.37 at the time of debut. Pravin Amre (81.23), Yashasvi Jaiswal (80.21), Rusi Modi (71.28), and Sachin Tendulkar (70.18) follow. Shubman Gill is seventh on the list. The Punjab batter had a first-class average of 68.78 while making his India Test debut.

Highest batting average in first-class cricket at the time of Test debut for India

• 88.37 - Vinod Kambli (27 matches)
• 81.23 - Praveen Amre (23)
• 80.21 - Yashasvi Jaiswal (15)
• 71.28 - Rusi Modi (38)
• 70.18 - Sachin Tendulkar (9)
• 69.85 - Sarfaraz Khan (45)
• 68.78 - Shubman Gill (23)

Notably, all the aforementioned players played lesser first-class games than Sarfaraz Khan at the time of their India Test debut. Shubman Gill is the only player not from Mumbai to feature in the list.

Sarfaraz Khan was named in the India squad ahead of the second Test in Vizag. However, Rajat Patidar made his debut ahead of him in the absence of KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja.

Rahul was ruled out of the third Test as well due to his injury, and with Shreyas Iyer dropped after the second Test, Sarfaraz made his debut in front of his wife and father.

India won the toss and elected to bat first in the third Test match in Rajkot. Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel were handed their debut cap, while Ravindra Jadeja made his comeback from injury. Kuldeep Yadav was picked ahead of Axar Patel as the third spinner. Also, Mohammed Siraj, who was rested for the second Test, made his way back by replacing Mukesh Kumar.