And just like that, it was over. An innings that began with a bang, ended in a whimper as Sarfaraz Khan was unfortunately run out after making one of the most entertaining debuts by an Indian cricketer. Sarfaraz Khan , who earlier in the day had finally realized his dream of playing for India in front of his family, was playing a blitzkrieg, striking a 48-ball half-century, the joint second-fastest by an Indian on debut. He was batting on 62 off 66 balls before his innings came to a brutal halt.
A perfect story to end India’s day on field at Rajkot on Day 1. Spurred with the centuries from skipper Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja, and with hurricane of runs to his back in the domestic format, Sarfaraz Khan just staged a perfect beginning to what could be his prolonged cricketing journey internationally at-least in tests. Sheer determination and urge to fulfill his father’s dream Sarfaraz Khan enters into test arena with full determination.
The Sarfaraz Khan exploits in Indian domestic circuit
As Sanju Samson has to be for India in white ball formats, Mumbai wicket keeper batter Sarfaraz Khan has been revolving in the Indian cricketing circuit and brewing in the media for quite a few time for non selection in the Indian test squad even after two stellar seasons with the red ball in the marquee Indian first class tournament The Ranji Trophy.
Talking about his performance, Sarfaraz has scored 556 runs in six games at an average of 92.66 in the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy campaign with the help of three centuries. In the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy season, he had 982 runs at an average of 122.75. Overall, he has an average of 69.6 in First Class cricket. Earlier in December, the 26-year-old batter also smashed a century off 63 balls during India’s three-day intra-squad practice match in Pretoria. He played this knock against the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Harshit Rana.
In addition to make his statement strong for selection, Mumbai-based batter Sarfaraz Khan once again made the headlines with his performance. Playing for India A in the ongoing two-day practice match against England Lions, Sarfaraz smashed 96 off 110 balls. His knock, which consisted of 11 boundaries and one six, came exactly after the day when India’s squad for the first two Tests against England was announced and he was once again overlooked for KS Bharat and Dhruv Jurel who scored 64 and 50 runs for India A.
Since 2008, the inception year of the IPL, approximately 50 players have represented India in Tests. But a trend began to unfold around the 2016-17 season where cricketers shot to the spotlight because of the IPL and were right away in the reckoning and players like Sarfaraz Khan who had a strong foothold in the longer format in domestic circuits were given a miss of an eye by the selectors edging them to prove themselves every time for the National Team selection.
Sarfaraz Khan didn’t disappoint and scored his second fifty in as many innings in Tests A quite 4th test at Ranchi but again after given a cushion of runs by top 3 batters at Dharamshala Sarfaraz khan with his acrobatics sweeps and shots dominant on English spinners scored yet other 50 . 3rd in the debut series with sweep shots a plenty and also fielding at critical position which urged Indian star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to laud this new talent in the Indian team .
Sarfaraz Khan learned a lot from standing at short leg- Ravichandran Ashwin
Star Indian player Ravichandran Ashwin has lauded Sarfaraz Khan for volunteering to stand at short leg during the five match test series vs England. Ashwin pointed out that several players are apprehensive about fielding at the position because of injury concerns. Praising Sarfaraz Khan for his courage, Ashwin said in his latest You Tube video :
“After ages, a young gun has come to us and chose to stand at short leg because nobody stands at short leg from the Indian team. It is very taxing. There is an injury fear. You can see the English and Australian teams. Ollie Pope is the man for short legs. Alastair Cook while he was playing. The same goes with Peter Handscomb for Australia. It is a specialist position and makes a lot of difference. He volunteered, and he learned a lot.”
Sarfaraz Khan also earned a widespread praise for his batting exploits in the debut test series . The talented youngster notched up three half centuries and finished with 200 runs in five innings with an average of 50. India beat England 4-1 to scalp a series victory as Ravichandran Ashwin was the highest wicket taker for India with 26 wickets.