Such is the embarrassment of riches at India’s disposal that not even 200 runs and three half-centuries in one’s first five Test innings can guarantee a sustained run. Sarfaraz Khan and prolific run-making have been extended bedfellows for a long time now. On the cusp of turning 27, the stocky right-hander has been on the first-class landscape for a decade, averaging a truly staggering 69.
09 in 51 games. Not only does he make big runs, he makes them quickly and with chutzpah and cheekiness, with confidence and character. It took a mountain of runs and for the stars to align for him to finally break the door open to Test selection in February.
As if to make up for lost time, he biffed 62 and 68 not out against England in his first two knocks, the former only ended by a run out when Ravindra Jadeja, on 99, called him through for a single in Rajkot and then left him for dead. After a lean outing in Ranchi, Sarfaraz lashed 56 in Dharamsala in March, but when Virat Kohli and KL Rahul returned to action at the start of the international home calendar last month in Chennai, Sarfaraz was forced to warm the bench. Between the end of the Test series against Bangladesh and the start of a new one against New Zealand, he played for Mumbai in the Irani Cup game in Lucknow, hammering an unbeaten 222 – a hundred for himself, he said, and another for his younger brother Musheer, who was forced out of the said game against Rest of India after a road accident.
Even that double ton would n.