Will India dare to punt on Sarfaraz’s X-factor in the middle-order? Premium

Sarfaraz Khan's journey from domestic cricket to the Indian Test team showcases his relentless pursuit of his dream.

For the longest time, Sarfaraz Khan must have wondered if time had passed him by. Having made his first-class debut in December 2014 as a 17-year-old for Mumbai, no less, he amassed runs by the bushel in first-class cricket, yet the dream he chased relentlessly remained elusive.

Sarfaraz has a habit of tilting at history, for being in the news for one reason or the other. As far back as in early 2018, a couple of years after making his IPL debut for Royal Challengers Bangalore and not playing a single game in the 2017 edition, he was one of three players retained by the franchise, alongside stalwarts A.B. de Villiers and skipper Virat Kohli, a move that stunned aficionados. After half the season, he was benched, ostensibly due to fitness-related issues, a stigma that has accompanied him since but hasn’t prevented him from doing justice to his exceptional ability.

After just one season with Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, Sarfaraz made the move to Uttar Pradesh at the urgings of his omnipresent father Naushad, representing them for two years until the realisation dawned that his best chance of playing for the country lay by returning to the domestic powerhouse which has been the cradle of Indian cricket for decades. After serving a mandatory cooling off period required by the Mumbai Cricket Association, he returned to the fold in the 2019-20 season, the prodigal son celebrating his comeback with an unbeaten half-century in the second innings, though it wasn’t enough to prevent Karnataka from notching up a five-wicket victory.

That was the start of a remarkable run that fetched him a massive 928 runs in six matches at the staggering average of 154.66. Among his three hundreds was a monumental unbeaten 301; by the end of his team’s campaign, his reintegration with Mumbai cricket was complete, and he was now in a position to pursue his dream with even greater intensity.

The runs continued to flow in domestic cricket, but he wasn’t as prolific for India-A at a time when the Indian middle-order was just beginning to ponder life after Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. He had a great chance to state his case on the shadow tour of Bangladesh in November 2022 but made only 21 runs in two matches; even though he had age on his side, how long could he continue the Jekyll and Hyde routine?

The first signs that the tide might be turning came towards the end of last year, during another shadow tour, this time of South Africa. In the first of two four-day games in Potchefstroom against South Africa-A, the stocky right-hander made a sparkling 68; he then followed it up with 34 in the next outing in Benoni. Not massive, admittedly, but enough to ensure that the faith placed in him wasn’t without basis.

It was, however, a sensational 161, allied with the slices of luck that had eluded him until then, against England Lions in January this year that emphatically turned his fortunes around. Even as India was bracing for defeat in the first Test against the English in Hyderabad, Sarfaraz tore into the Lions attack, smashing 161 off just 160 deliveries at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Despite the absence of Kohli, Sarfaraz hadn’t been picked in the Test squad; that would change quickly.