Sarfaraz Khan: A Mumbai maidan cricketer’s long journey to India Test cap
Al Jazeera
Once hailed as one of India’s brightest prospects, Sarfaraz spent years waiting for a chance to play for his country.
Mumbai, India – Batting for nearly 10 hours at Mumbai’s Cross Maidan, Sarfaraz Khan first stole the limelight as a schoolboy in 2009 when he rewrote the history of the famed ground in the Indian metropolis renowned for producing great batters.
The then-12-year-old recorded the highest-ever score in the Harris Shield, a tournament known as the Holy Grail of school cricket in the city.
Dressed in traditional cricket whites – loose-fitting white shirt and track pants – the strongly-built boy from Kurla, an eastern lower middle-class suburb of the bustling city, scored 439 runs and became a national sensation.
Playing for Rizvi Springfield in the Under-16 category, Sarfaraz hit 56 fours and 12 sixes in his innings as he broke Ramesh Nagdev’s 46-year-old record of 427 not out. On his way, Sarfaraz went past the score of another Ramesh – the 346 runs scored by cricket legend Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar in 1988.
Following Sarfaraz’s record-breaking achievement, local newspapers and national media were quick to wonder if he would be “the next Tendulkar”, but the prodigy slid into obscurity.
