Sarfaraz Khan shows why the hype around him is real

Getting an India Test cap is not easy, especially in a nation where billions aspire to be Test cricketers. Sarfaraz Khan, until a week ago, would have felt he was one of those who might never get to realize their dream of representing India in what is still considered the format in cricket.

Not anymore. Not anymore.

The moment he received his Test cap, the joy on his face was palpable. Above all, though, there was a sense of relief. Those hours, days, months, and years of grind had finally yielded a tangible reward, and the emotion of having made it to where he wanted to be, both from Sarfaraz and his family, was quite visible.

This story is made beautiful by exactly that fact. Of course, the weight of runs – on the back of which he is here – is astounding. But it is how he has persevered, despite being overlooked for a senior cap at possibly every juncture, that is the biggest takeaway.

There would have been countless moments where he would have felt broken, not being able to fathom just why he had been left out, despite boasting the best of credentials. He did not let those setbacks break him completely. Instead, he got stronger.

And that is what shone through in his debut innings, and what will perhaps become the lasting memory from his first international game for India.

Sarfaraz scored a sublime half-century on Test debut

Sarfaraz walked out to bat at 237-4. India had staved off their initial collapse but had they lost another wicket before reaching 250, the pressure would have been firmly on them; the advantage of batting first having seemingly been spurned.

Sarfaraz, this being his debut, could have tried biding his time. He could have nudged, nurdled, and tried to be out there for as long as possible. It may not have tilted the momentum totally in India’s favor, but it would not have handed England the initiative either. It was, what many might call, the safer approach.

That is not how Sarfaraz plays his cricket, though. He is one of those batters who does not die wondering. Through orthodox cricketing strokes, he can bat at a fair clip in red-ball cricket, transferring pressure onto the bowlers and keeping his side ticking in the process. A First-Class strike rate of more than 70 suggests as much.

The pressure of the debut and the match situation did not matter to Sarfaraz thereafter. He knew he was in his preferred habitat. This is where he had wanted to be all his life, and if there was only one shot he was ever going to get at it, he was going to do it his way.

Some of the strokes he attempted bordered on the outrageous, especially against the spinners. Yet, it never felt like he was doing something out of the box just to prove that he belonged to this level. It was almost as if he knew this was his stage, and that this was the platform to showcase his entire repertoire.

Whenever the spinners bowled in his half, he was not afraid to go over the top. The more impressive aspect, however, was how he played the field, nudging and nurdling into gaps, maneuvering the ball into areas where England did not want it to go, thereby creating run-scoring opportunities that he ultimately cashed in on.

He shimmied down the track to James Anderson too, displaying the sort of bravado not expected of a debutant. Mark Wood’s short-ball barrage – a perceived weakness of Sarfaraz - was also handled expertly. The only time Sarfaraz looked like getting out was when Ravindra Jadeja was looking scratchy in the 90s, leading to skittish running between the wickets.

These sequences, apart from illustrating Sarfaraz’s talent, also spoke a lot about his mindset. To have that sort of clarity, making your Test debut, with your team in strife, takes some doing. And he made it feel as if it was just another day at the office.

Bat, bat long, bat smoothly, make everyone drool over what is indeed possible with such talent, and then leave – the sort of thing he has been doing in domestic cricket for years.

Despite averaging close to 70 in first-class cricket - in a domestic circuit often the envy of the cricketing world – he, until February 15, 2024, had not played a red-ball game for India. Lots of reasons had been thrown around - some may be justified, but most others not even coming close to that threshold.

Unless a fly off the selection committee's wall comes buzzing, we will probably never know why it took so long for someone so highly rated and talented to get a gig.

This moment, though, is not about the hours, days, months, or years of overlooking. Rather, about a 26-year-old, who across 66 balls of a series-hinging Test, showed why the massive hype around him was and is quite real.

Those who had, at some point in their lives, watched him bat on the maidans in Mumbai - across age groups or from when Sarfaraz was very young - would promptly claim that they knew he was always capable of this one day. This almost effortless, languid, and nonchalant brilliance comes so naturally to him.

Now, perhaps the rest of India will testify too.