Sarfaraz Khan is breaking the door down on the national selectors and he may have just ensured his maiden India call-up after another blockbuster century.
Batting in the Irani Cup for the Rest Of India, Sarfaraz Khan registered a terrific century – his 10th in first-class cricket in 29 matches – against Saurashtra in Rajkot to extend his side’s lead.
Saurashtra were bowled out for 98 on the first morning courtesy of seamers Mukes Kumar (4 wickets), Kuldeep Sen and Umran Malik 3 wickets each.
In reply, Rest Of India had a poor start losing their top three of Abhimanyu Easwaran, Mayank Agarwal and Yash Dhull for only 18 runs on the board.
Then, Sarfaraz Khan joined captain Hanuma Vihari in the middle and both took the side to stumps further unscathed with a partnership of 187* runs. Of this, Sarfaraz scored 125 himself in 126 balls with the help of 19 fours and 2 sixes. Hanuma Vihari, whose position in the Indian team is also not certain after Cheteshwar Pujara’s return earlier in Edgbaston, remained unbeaten on 62 as ROI’s lead crossed 100.
Sarfaraz was quick off the blocks at the start of his innings playing his counter-attacking punches to the bowlers’ questions. He reached his century off only 92 balls. His first-class average has now propelled to over 80!
Suryakumar Yadav celebrated Sarfaraz Khan with a special post:
India batsman Suryakumar Yadav was elated to see his Mumbai teammate Sarfaraz Khan register another first-class century. Suryakumar, who is currently in Guwahati with the Indian team where they will play South Africa in a T20I on Sunday, took to Twitter to express his happiness at Sarfaraz’s century in the Irani Trophy.
SKY posted a photo of himself with Sarfaraz celebrating his century in the background on the television and wrote: “So so so Proud of you”
So so so Proud of you👏 pic.twitter.com/aHtT20LeQY
— Surya Kumar Yadav (@surya_14kumar) October 1, 2022
Sarfaraz Khan has been in a purple patch in recent times. Less than two weeks ago, he had struck a century in the Duleep Trophy final while batting for West Zone. In the Ranji Trophy final, against Madhya Pradesh, he waged a lone battle for Mumbai with scores of 134 and 45. In between, he notched up a fifty against the New Zealand A side.
In the Ranji trophy, he had become the first batsman to record over 900 runs in consecutive seasons: Sarfaraz amassed 928 runs in the 2019-20 season, and followed it up with 982 runs last season.
