Sarfaraz Khan: The angry young man of Indian cricket shines again

Sarfaraz Khan is what you can call the angry young man of Indian cricket. He may be 26 and only three Test matches old, but there is no hint of anxiousness of a newcomer in him trying to please the team’s think tank by playing the correct waiting game.

Rather, it’s his feisty nature which makes the Mumbaikar so different from the aspirants for a berth in the Indian middle order – always ready to look the opponent in the eye and punish the loose ball. No prizes for guessing, it’s his tough childhood and years of waiting in the wings despite scoring tons of runs in domestic cricket that has toughened him up and it’s now reflecting on the big stage.

As soon as the stocky Sarfaraz rose on his toes to punch Tim Southee through the covers for a four to race to his maiden Test century, he began trending bigtime in the social media. An amazing effort as the landmark came in only 110 balls while his invaluable partnerships - first with Virat Kohli and then Rishabh Pant - put India on course for what could be a remarkable turnaround after the meltdown of 46 in the first innings.

22nd Indian

For those with an eye for statistics, Sarfaraz became the 22^nd Indian player to score a duck and a century in the same Test. Shubman Gill, whose last minute stiff neck actually paved the way for Sarfaraz in the playing XI, and Shikhar Dhawan are among those who have accomplished such a feat in previous games. Come the second Test in Pune when Gill will be back, it would be interesting to see if Gautam Gambhir & Co can walk the talk by rewarding form over reputation.

A look at Sarfaraz’s wagon wheel would shows a bulk of runs square off the wicket and behind it, courtesy some of the cheeky nudges and upper cuts he played against both the seamers and spinners. The way the wicket has progressively eased out gave him the time to play such shots and fact remains that the likes of Ajaz Patel & Co were not really in the same league as Ravi Ashwin & Co, but it’s to Sarfaraz’s credit that he never looked bothered by the occasion of facing a huge first innings deficit since yesterday.

‘’Love how Sarfaraz Khan is giving the finger to the Mumbai school of batting. Finally, it’s all about the runs & boy he knows how to get those,’’ Sanjay Manjrekar, former Indian batter and a firm believer in the conservative Mumbai school, wrote on his X handle. The euphoria on him reaching a century reminded one of the home Test series against England few months back where his back-to-back fifties were a major talking point.

It’s once again a turnaround in the fortunes of Sarfaraz, who was released ahead of the second Test versus Bangladesh – having sat out the first match in Chennai with a full strength squad available. There was no way he could have been chosen ahead of a fit KL Rahul but the former made the most of the gametime in a Mumbai shirt in the Irani Cup game against Rest of India.

The annual contest between the reigning Ranji champions and the Rest, rich in history as it saw most of the country’s batting legends excel there, witnessed it’s first double century for Mumbai as Sarfaraz’s epic 221 not out helped them lift the trophy after 27 years.

 ‘’Raat ko waqt do guzarne ke liye, Sooraj apne hi samay pe niklega,’’  (Give the night time to pass, the sun will come out on it’s own time) was how Sarfaraz’s father Naushad famously described the poignant moment of his son getting a India cap earlier this year. Well, the sun is shinning brightly for him now!