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

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.

Purple patch

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.

With K.L. Rahul too going out of commission during the Hyderabad defeat, Sarfaraz was drafted into the side for the second match, in Visakhapatnam. He still had to bide his time, Rajat Patidar winning his maiden cap. But Sarfaraz, and the Khan family, was upbeat; younger brother Musheer was lighting up the Under-19 World Cup with his all-round prowess in South Africa and there was no doubt any more that it was just a matter of time before Sarfaraz would wear the India colours.

His debut came in the third Test in Rajkot, coincidentally at the expense of his Mumbai mate Shreyas Iyer, finally dumped after failing to register a single Test fifty in 12 consecutive innings. At 26, Sarfaraz had fulfilled an ambition he nursed from the time he started playing the game. He was an Indian Test player.

The long apprenticeship period can impact different individuals differently. Some find the eventual breakthrough so overwhelming that merely getting to play seems like the end, not the beginning. And then, there are others like Sarfaraz, so keyed up for so long that having finally got the chance to showcase their skills on a larger stage to a global audience, they grow fangs and draw inspiration from the occasion.

That Sarfaraz was a popular member within the Indian set-up was obvious from the time he joined the nets in Visakhapatnam. Cuddly and wide-eyed, he was lapped up by his colleagues while Yashasvi Jaiswal, his much younger Mumbai colleague who sports a serious mien, was left to his devices. Sarfaraz loved the attention, of course – he is a showman-in-the-making – but that didn’t detract from his focus and concentration. In the field, while he did have fun and enjoyed himself immensely when he came out with drinks or as a substitute, you could see that he meant business. Just how much so, England was reminded in Rajkot.

After an early stutter on winning the toss, India recovered superbly from 33 for three to reach 237 when Rohit Sharma was dismissed after a double-century stand with Ravindra Jadeja. Enter Sarfaraz at No. 6, to a crowded infield with Ben Stokes trying to pressure the debutant into doing something reckless. It might have been the English script, but the little fella chose to ignore it, instead penning his own breathtaking tale in a savage assault that rattled the visitors.

With Jadeja largely an admiring spectator at the non-striker’s end, Sarfaraz brought all facets of his batting into play – orthodoxy, cheekiness, barndoor defence, scything stroke-play. He mocked England’s fields, he toyed with their plans, he batted as if this was an open ‘net’, not his first hit in Test cricket. To be able to summon that mindset – with no little help from Rohit and Rahul Dravid, one is sure – on the most important day of his cricketing life called for resolve and courage, for boldness and enterprise. Sarfaraz ticked all boxes magnificently, racing to 62 off 66 when he was left for dead by Jadeja, on 99 and first calling his partner through for a single before turning his back on him.

To Sarfaraz’s credit, he didn’t rant and rave, he didn’t throw a tantrum. In the dressing-room, Rohit flung his cap to the floor in disgust, disappointment and obvious disapproval at Jadeja’s error in judgement, but Sarfaraz was as calm as one could be, given the circumstances. The young lad had become a man. This was as seminal a moment as a few hours earlier, when he had received his Test cap.

Sarfaraz had a terrific time thereafter, making an unbeaten half-century in the second innings and then backing it up with a fierce 56 in the final Test in Dharamsala. He has made three scores in excess of 50 in his first five Test innings and averages an even 50. India haven’t played a Test since Dharamsala, so one would expect Sarfaraz to be a shoo-in for the opening Test of the next season, against Bangladesh in Chennai from September 19, but fact can often be stranger than fiction.

India’s selection panel led by Ajit Agarkar, Rohit and new head coach Gautam Gambhir are now saddled with a problem of plenty – a happy headache, as they say, though how anyone can be happy with a headache beggars belief. Kohli and Rahul are back in commission, and even if one were to assume that the latter isn’t guaranteed his place in the XI, that means that there is, at best, just one middle-order slot up for grabs.

The contenders are numerous, needless to say, because such is the depth in Indian cricket. Patidar might have played him out of the reckoning for the immediate future after failing to impress in his three Tests, but apart from Rahul, there are others in the running too, including Devdutt Padikkal, who crowned his Dharamsala debut with a flowing half-century. The tall left-hander, who primarily bats in the top three for Karnataka, is in the middle of an excellent run in the Maharaja Trophy T20 tournament. The format might be different, but he is in form and will look to take that confidence into the first round of the Duleep Trophy from September 5, which in all likelihood will serve as an audition for Test selection.

Sarfaraz is used to waiting, maybe even comfortable doing so now that he has had so much practice, but having tasted success in Test cricket, it’s inevitable that he will be hungry for more. All he can do is what he has been doing for the last four seasons or so – make the mountain of runs that will eventually be impossible to ignore. He brings energy and enthusiasm with his ebullient presence, and it’s sometimes easy to forget that he isn’t a teenager any more, not by a long way. But more than anything else, he carries that X factor that comes to only a very few. Despite Rahul’s class, experience and pedigree, the temptation to punt on Sarfaraz will be massive. After all, he has earned his spurs, hasn’t he?