Sarfaraz Khan made his Test debut in the third Test against England, played at the Niranjan Shah Cricket Stadium in Rajkot. India won the third test by a huge margin of 434 runs and Sarfaraz Khan impressed everyone with his brilliant batting in both innings as he scored 62 in the first innings and 68* in the second innings. indian pattern Rohit Sharma praised Sarfaraz Khan’s performance and admitted that he had not seen much of Sarfaraz Khan with the bat before this Test match.
Rohit Sharma heard from some Mumbai players that Sarfaraz Khan can do the job in the middle order as the 26-year-old batsman has good experience and has played a lot of domestic cricket. Unfortunately, Sarfaraz Khan was run out in the first innings after scoring 62 off 66 deliveries. He then added 178 runs with Yashasvi Jaiswal in the second innings for the fifth wicket, as he remained unbeaten on 68 off 72 deliveries. India won the third Test and took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Rohit Sharma shared his thoughts on Sarfaraz Khan’s impressive Test debut against England in the third Test and candidly admitted that he hasn’t seen him bat much but has heard about him from some Mumbai players. Sarfaraz Khan amassed 3912 runs in 65 innings at an average of 69.85 in first-class cricket before being included in the Test match. He hit 14 centuries and 11 half-centuries which included three hundreds. He rose to fame after scoring 928 in nine innings at an average of 154 in the 2020 Ranji Trophy season.
“I haven’t seen Sarfaraz bat much. But all the people I have heard, the players who are from Mumbai, say that he has run in many difficult situations for Mumbai. He is hungry for runs and for the last 4-5 years he has been continuously scoring runs in domestic cricket, so (that means) he is doing something good.” said the Indian captain.
Rohit Sharma did not discuss any plan with Sarfaraz Khan
On whether specific instructions were given to the debutant, Rohit Sharma said: “We did not discuss any plans with him. Because I know that if you leave him alone, he will do his job, something I have heard the Mumbai players say.” Sarfaraz came out to bat at number 6 in the first innings and smashed nine boundaries and a six against English bowlers in the first innings.
In the second innings, Sarfaraz was a little more aggressive as he hit six fours and three sixes for 68 off 72 deliveries. He was brilliant with the bat on his debut and has given some confidence to the team management and the captain that he is here to stay. India and England will now lock horns in the fourth Test at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association Stadium in Ranchi.
India are currently leading the five-match Test series 2-1 and they hope to clinch the series by winning the fourth Test in Ranchi. However, England need to win the match if they want to win the remaining two matches if they want to win the Test series against India and repeat 2012.