Sarfaraz Khan’s father, Naushad Khan, was emotional when his eldest son received a debut India Test cap on Thursday morning from the hands of Anil Kumble in Rajkot ahead of the third Test against England.
Along with Sarfaraz, Agra-born youngster Dhruv Jurel also made his Test debut, replacing wicket-keeper KS Bharat, and Jurel got his cap from veteran stumper Dinesh Karthik.
All, or most of the attention today was on Sarfaraz Khan and his father. The fans reflected on the hard work, sacrifices, and risks Naushad had to take to make his sons into professional cricketers – Sarfaraz’s younger brother Musheer recently left a big imprint on the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa – over the past two decades. Sarfaraz Khan’s father, Naushad Khan, himself is a coach and trained his son.
While fans were happy that Naushad got to witness Sarfaraz’s cap presentation from up close inside the stadium, a section of fans were upset by and questioned the presence of Naushad in the commentary box during the play.
A renowned Twitter user, with Twitter handle @MrSinha_ and who has more than 200,000 followers, expressed his discomfort at the fact that Naushad Khan was invited to the commentary box. This Twitter user posted a picture of Naushad speaking with commentator Aakash Chopra in the first session on Thursday. The Twitter user questioned the BCCI about this “wokeism/secularism” aspect he feels that is getting into cricket.
He opined, “He’s Naushad Khan, father of Sarfaraz Khan. Sarfaraz is neither the first nor the last young cricketer to debut in cricket. However, have you ever seen any other cricketer’s parents inside a commentary box? @BCCI should ensure that such wokeism/secularism doesn’t become a new normal.
I’m not against Sarfaraz, I’m against this new stupid trend.”
The fact that more than 18,000 people liked this tweet means that a significant number of people concurred with the views of @MrSinha_.
Check out his tweet:
At stumps on Day 1, India are 326/5. Rohit Sharma raised his 11th Test century, Ravindra Jadeja his 4th and is unbeaten and Sarfaraz smashed 62 runs.
Also Read: IND vs ENG: Ravindra Jadeja Accepted His Mistake And Apologised To Sarfaraz Khan
