Sarfaraz Khan made his test debut against England in the 3rd Test Match. It has been a long wait for the batter from Mumbai. He has been piling on the runs in Ranji Trophy and finally his dream and the dream of his father came true in this Test Match. Every Indian cricket fan wanted to see Sarfaraz Khan do well as he has been waiting patiently year after year for his opportunity as the others got to play for India. He made the most of his opportunity as he made 62 runs from just 66 balls. He had a brilliant strike rate of 93.94 and he smashed 9 fours and 1 six meaning 42 runs in boundaries.
Let’s talk about the debut of Sarfaraz Khan and the journey to get here
Sarfaraz Khan makes his dream come true
Sarfaraz Khan was born in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh but he shifted to Mumbai for his cricket. He spent most of his time at Azad Maidan. He was unable to attend school for 4 years due to all his cricket. Sarfaraz Khan came into the limelight first when he broke the record set by Sachin Tendulkar in the Harris Shield when he hit 439 runs In just 421 balls. Gradually he was a part of the Mumbai Under 19 team and his performances there merited his selection in the India Under 19 team. Sarfaraz Khan played 2 Under 19 World Cups for India in 2014 and 2016. He has the record for the most half centuries in the Under 19 World Cup with 7 50+ scores.
It has been a long road for Sarfaraz Khan to get here. He has been playing Ranji Trophy since 2013 for Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh and it has been a decade. He has played 43 Matches for Mumbai as well as Uttar Pradesh and in those Matches he has made 3692 runs at an amazing average of 69.66. He has hit 14 Hundreds in the Ranji Trophy and he has hit 11 half centuries as well. He has a highest score of 301*. Sarfaraz Khan had been scoring over 1000 runs for the past 2 years and he has knocked the door open into the Indian team. He also played for the Uttar Pradesh Ranji Trophy team from 2015-2016 season. In his first 11 first class Matched he had made 535 runs. In the year 2019 he made his first Ranji Trophy Triple hundred against Uttar Pradesh playing for Mumbai where he made 301 not out.
Sarfaraz Khan has also played white ball cricket domestically. He has played 37 White ball matches in which he has made 629 runs at an average of 34.94. He has hit 2 hundreds with a highest score of 117. He has also played 96 T20 Matches throughout his career in which he scored 1188 runs. He played for RCB from 2015-2018 then for Punjab Kings from 2019-2021. He has not been able to stand out as an IPL player or a white ball player like he has stood out in the red ball format. This is the opposite as the common norm is that players are proficient in white ball cricket and struggle in red ball cricket. All these years that he has worked hard in Ranji Trophy came in handy in the test match as he played the likes of James Anderson and Mark Wood with ease and was looking good for a hundred until a miscommunication with Ravindra Jadeja happened and he got out on 62.
The hard work has just started for Sarfaraz Khan as he has played a great first innings which has ensured that he will get a long run and play all the remaining test matches of the series. He will have to be consistent and get a hundred in one of these matches. There was another debutant Dhruv Jurel who made his debut as a wicket keeper for India. Sarfaraz Khan was Test Cap number 311 for India and Dhruv Jurel was test cap number 312 for India.
