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Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan continued his dream run by scoring a brilliant 125 against Delhi in an Elite Group B Match of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season 2022-23 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, on Tuesday.
After all, his job, as mentioned by his father and coach Naushad Khan, is “to keep scoring runs, for whichever team, all the time”.
25-year-old Sarfaraz brought up his third century in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season after scoring a brilliant 125 off 155 balls at a strike rate of 80.44, including sixteen fours and four sixes to help Mumbai recover from 66/4 to post a total of 293 in the first innings.
Sarfaraz along with all-rounder Shams Mulani stitched a 144-run stand for the sixth wicket to take Mumbai from 110/5 to 254/6. Shams supported Sarfaraz by playing an anchor role and scored a crucial 39 off 103 balls while Sarfaraz was hitting boundaries at regular intervals to keep the scoreboard ticking.
The Bangladesh ‘A’ tour didn’t go well for Sarfaraz, but since then he has hit three centuries and one half-century in his eight Ranji Trophy innings in the season so far.
In the last two Ranji Trophy seasons, he has piled up 1,910 runs in just 12 games, averaging 136.42. The right-hander has scored 928 runs at an average of 154.66 from his six games in the 2019-20 season, and 982 runs at an average of 122.75 from his six games in the 2021-22 season. There were seven centuries in there, including a triple-hundred, against Uttar Pradesh, in January 2020.
Sarfaraz’s outstanding first-class average of 80.47 from 36 matches scoring 3,380 runs (before the latest century) was always going to bring Australia’s legendary batter Sir Don Bradman into the discussion. “It gives me happiness that I have been close to his [Bradman’s] record in the last three seasons,” he said. “It won’t always be the same, but I am happy to be around him right now.”
Sir Don averaged 99.94 in his 52 Tests, scoring 6,996 runs. While in his 234 first-class games, he averaged marginally low at 95.14 with 28,067 runs.
Hundred and counting! 💯
Yet another impressive knock from Sarfaraz Khan 👏👏
Follow the Match ▶️ https://t.co/sV1If1IQmA#RanjiTrophy | #DELvMUM | @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/GIRosM7l14
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) January 17, 2023
With numbers like these, it is hard for the selectors to ignore a player like Sarfaraz and avoid giving him a chance at the Test level. Recently, a lot of eyebrows were raised when he was not included in the Indian Test squad for the 4-match Test Series against Australia. On January 13, when the team for the first two Tests against Australia was named, the general feeling was: what more does Sarfaraz need to do? It crossed his mind too.
“My father came [to Delhi] a couple of days ago, and I trained with him for two days in Ghaziabad [near Delhi] before the game. He knew I was upset [at not being selected],” Sarfaraz said. “So he said, ‘Our job is to keep scoring runs, for whichever team, all the time’. Since I was a child, whenever I have been a bit confused, or things have not gone right, he does the same thing, he just motivates me and gives me confidence, and prepares me mentally.”
One reason for Sarfaraz’s omission from the Test side could be due to his fitness. Despite scoring a huge number of runs in the Ranji Trophy and first-class cricket in general, he hasn’t shown his true potential when given the opportunity at the India A level.
In six ‘A’ games so far, Sarfaraz has just 205 runs at an average of 34.16. Just before the Ranji season started, he scored 21 and 0 in his two innings on the tour of Bangladesh.
“A human being can’t be successful all the time,” he said when asked about the ‘A’ numbers. “When I played my first match for India A, I scored 71 not out [in Bloemfontein]. The other players got out, otherwise I could have scored a century. But yes, I was dismissed cheaply a few times. After that, in the series against New Zealand A, I was out early once and scored 60 in another innings.
“It has happened a few times that the lower-order batters have got out quickly, and I didn’t have the opportunity to score more. I will keep trying to improve my numbers for India A too.”
On the subject of his fitness, Sarfaraz said, “In December last year, Delhi Capitals [his IPL team] had conducted a 14-day fitness camp, so their players are prepared for the season. So I have been at it since then, working to make sure my fitness is up there. Keeping in mind the next IPL, the focus of the Delhi Capitals team is on the fitness of the players, especially me,” he added.
India and Australia will play four Tests for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting from February 9 at Nagpur.
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