Sarfaraz Khan is a bitter man. After playing 6 Test matches for India where he scored a hundred and 3 fifties and averaged 37.10, he finds himself in and out of the Indian Test team.
The middle-order batter was given a call-up to join the squad for the Test tour of Sri Lanka, but didn’t get a game. Subsequently, he wasn’t picked for Test matches against New Zealand or the three A matches there.
“I didn’t even know I would get a call for the Sri Lanka tour. Then, I came back to play for Mumbai. I am not able to understand anything (about the future),” an emotional Sarfaraz told reporters at the Brabourne stadium on Monday. “I am just playing. Whenever and wherever I get a chance to play, I play. If I am called for higher honours, I will go. Else, I will play here (Ranji Trophy).”
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Despite his voracious appetite for runs at the domestic level (5354 runs at Average of 63.73 in 66 first-class matches, the national selectors are known to have doubts about his ability in SENA conditions. The news has reached Sarfaraz too.
{{/usCountry}}Despite his voracious appetite for runs at the domestic level (5354 runs at Average of 63.73 in 66 first-class matches, the national selectors are known to have doubts about his ability in SENA conditions. The news has reached Sarfaraz too.
{{/usCountry}}“Not from the selectors, but when I went with the Indian team recently, I just heard that they are looking at me just for Indian conditions,” he said. “But I have a question, that I scored hundreds in 60 balls in South Africa and in England (in intra-squad matches). It isn’t that I haven’t scored away from home. But that’s their perspective. My job is to play cricket.”
“Sometimes when you are making a comeback and face a rank turner and you have gone there after a lot of struggle in domestic cricket, you can’t always perform. In those conditions, 30-40 runs can be enough,” he said, perhaps alluding to the turning tracks where he failed against New Zealand at home in Pune and Mumbai.
From being 97 kilos, Sarfaraz has shed 22 kilos of weight to become a leaner cricketer. “No one told me to. I just heard on social media and other places and I started working hard on losing weight,” he said.
“I think I was scoring more heavily when I was fat. After better fitness, I am getting fewer big runs,” he joked. “But it’s not like that. I am still getting runs. Every year cannot be the same. So long as you are not out of form, it’s ok. Sometimes, I get 150, 40, 50, sometimes a poor decision. That’s ok. Big runs will come.”
“It’s difficult to restart every season. Scoring runs is not easy. I am following the same routines that I did when I started with my abbu (father). Not taking off days in the off-season, practicing. I don’t know how many runs I will score. I still work as hard as I did when I started playing Ranji Trophy a decade ago. People know if you want to find Sarfaraz Khan, don’t go to his home address, but at the Azad or Cross maidan at 6am,” he said. “Sometimes you find success, sometimes not. It’s tough. But this is what you have to do, can’t do much about.”
Asked if he had lost motivation in the journey, Sarfaraz replied, “I ask myself the same question. Why get up at 5am and go for practice?
“I have played for India. With normal effort, I can easily keep playing in th Ranji Trophy for Mumbai. I am still scoring hundreds. But when I see my father working hard, and him sweating it out, I work hard for him.”
At a certain stage in the interaction, Sarfaraz gets despondent. “Everyone knows I don’t have support in life,” he said. “If anyone has supported me, it’s my father. Nobody else. I worked hard and fulfilled my father’s dream. I have scored big hundreds to get there. It is not easy to play for India in today’s generation.”
“The motivation is to keep playing cricket. I think I am made for cricket. I don’t like to sit at home,” he added, before joining a teammate’s cake cutting celebrations.
For those few fleeting moments, Sarfaraz was happy again.