For the scribes who spend any length of time covering domestic cricket in India, there may be jaded familiarity with a line trotted out by players aspiring for higher honours when probed on matters of selection. “Our job is to just score runs or take wickets, selection will take care of itself,” is the common refrain.A little over a week ago, with the announcement of India’s squad for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in New Chandigarh, a fresh reminder arrived that mere runs or wickets don’t always suffice. The nub of the subsequent critique directed at the selection panel from fans and former cricketers was this: do performances in the Ranji Trophy, the country’s premier First Class tournament, really matter while picking India’s Test team?Recurring questionIt is a question that crops up usually when a Test squad is chosen close on the heels of a Ranji season, and overlooks the standout run-getter or wicket-taker. You don’t have to rewind to the distant past to consider the predicament of Sarfaraz Khan. For a span of three seasons from 2019-20 to 2022-23 — the red-ball tournament was cancelled in 2020-21 due to Covid — the middle-order batter from Mumbai churned out runs like clockwork. In the 2021-22 season, Sarfaraz rose to the top of the leaderboard with 982 runs in nine innings at a Bradmanesque average of 122.75. It came on the back of 928 runs at 154.66 in 2019-20.Yet, a call-up eluded Sarfaraz until the beginning of 2024 when he was drafted into the squad for the second Test of a five-match series against England. A handful of opportunities with mixed results later, the 28-year-old, a few kilos lighter but with his insatiable appetite for run-scoring undiminished, finds himself back on the periphery of the Test set-up.The trigger for the renewal of this debate is the decision to name Gurnoor Brar in India’s pace attack for the assignment against Hashmatullah Shahidi & Co. With Jasprit Bumrah resting after the exertions of the T20 World Cup and the IPL, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna are the other pacers in the 15-member contingent.Gurnoor’s maiden call-up has seemingly come at the expense of Jammu & Kashmir’s Auqib Nabi, who has produced jaw-dropping returns over the past two seasons. After claiming 44 scalps in 2024-25, the medium-pacer propelled himself to the front and centre of his team’s epochal title-winning feat in 2025-26 with 60 wickets. Nabi’s overall career figures read 156 wickets in 41 First Class appearances at an average of 18.37 and a strike-rate of 38.1.