Sarfaraz Khan, who plied his trade with Delhi Capitals (DC) in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season, played only six matches for his side. But in the ongoing Ranji Trophy Quarter-finals, the 24-year-old showed his prowess to all his doubters with a spectacular 153 runs off 205 balls against Uttarakhand, before Mayank Mishra took the youngster's wicket.
Prior to IPL 2022 as well, Sarfaraz was Mumbai's go-to batter in the Ranji Trophy 2022 edition. His scintillating knocks of 275 and 165 in the league stage helped Mumbai make it to the knockouts, and he continued his fine form in the Quarter-finals as well. Sarfaraz set up a 267-run partnership with Suved Parkar for the fourth wicket which has given his team a strong platform on which they can build their match.
Sarfaraz's innings also drew the attention of one of his Mumbai teammates Suryakumar Yadav, who is recovering from an injury that he sustained during IPL 2022. With Sarfaraz reaching his century, Surya took to his Instagram to react to the same as he put up an image of the 24-year-old on his story while writing a motivational quote, "Work hard, play hard."
The DC batter has an above-par average of 140 in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season, with scores of 275, 63, 48, 165 and 153 respectively. This means his 704 runs in five innings have raised the prospects of his inclusion in India's Test squad for their upcoming Test series.
In 13 Ranji Trophy innings, Sarfaraz has scored 2252 runs at an average of 80.52, which is the second-highest for a batter with a minimum of 2000 runs in first-class cricket, just behind Sir Don Bradman (95.14). Since his comeback to the Mumbai squad in 2019-2020, the former U-19 batter has just taken the Ranji Trophy by storm.
Sarfaraz will be hoping to continue his form and take his side to the finals to make a statement and continue his performances on India A tours as well after he made his debut in South Africa earlier this year. With no Surya, Shreyas Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane, Mumbai needed players like Sarfaraz, Parkar and skipper Prithvi Shaw to stand up and take responsibility.
Sarfaraz had an at-par IPL 2022 season with DC, scoring 91 runs in six games at an average of 30.33. He was bought for his base price of Rs 20 lakhs by the IPL 2020 finalists.
