Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar compared Sarfaraz Khan with Javed Miandad for his iconic show against New Zealand in the first Test match at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Sarfaraz who made it to playing XI after Shubman Gill missed the spot due to a slight niggle in his neck played a knock of 150 runs in the second inning.
Manjrekar said that Sarfaraz's inning against New Zealand reminded him of former cricketer Javed Miandad of the 1980s.
During an interaction with ESPN Cricinfo, the former Indian cricketer branded Sarfaraz as a new version of Miandad. “He (Sarfaraz) reminds me of a Javed Miandad of the 1980s but this is a 2024 version of a Javed Miandad. He really impressed me with the way he played. We know Sarfaraz plays spin well, but I liked the way he played fast bowlers,” Manjrekar said.
Manjrekar stated Sarfaraz’s approach in the final session on Day 3. Sarfaraz played more defensively as he needed to remain unbeaten till the stumps.
“Towards the end of the (third) day’s play when he was looking to play defensively and wanting bad light when there was actually bright light. I loved the way he was ducking to bouncers, just trying to play the day out so he has that game as well and that augurs well for India and Sarfaraz Khan for Australia because he has shown that element of batting as well,” Manjrekar explained.
Sarfaraz made his Test debut against England where he scored 200 runs in his three outings with a high score of 68 not out. After that, the batter missed his spot in India's squad for the recently concluded two Test match series against Bangladesh where Men in Blue registered a dominating 2-0 win to stay on number one in the WTC points table tally.
Coming back to the match, After getting all-out on just 46 runs Rohit Sharma-led India scored 462 runs in the second innings to take a lead of 106 runs. New Zealand needs 107 runs to win the first Test match.
More on Sports Tak:
- Domestic giant Sarfaraz Khan scores maiden Test ton after duck in 1st innings, equals Shikhar Dhawan's unique decade-old feat against New Zealand
- 'Time will tell. If he's not picked this summer then...': Mitchell Starc backs Steve Smith's 19-year-old NSW teammate to open against India in Border-Gavaskar Trophy
