Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan, who was picked in the 15-man team for the last three Tests against England, has finally received his cap. The batter is the 312th Indian player to wear the Test cap. Anil Kumble, the former spinner, presented him with his first Test cap in the team huddle before the match.
Sarfaraz Khan’s father, Naushad Khan, broke down in tears. Naushad was present at the Saurashtra Cricket Association in Rajkot on Thursday to see his son’s cap presentation ceremony from the field.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first. The Men in Blue are hosting England for the 3rd Test in Rajkot. The Mumbai middle-order batter was named to the squad for the second Test in Visakhapatnam after KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja were ruled out with injury. However, Rajat Patidar received the nod over Sarfaraz for that game.
There has been another debutant wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel also got his cap as well. The 22-year-old batter replaced KS Bharat in the team. The visitors have been all over the home side as in a good batting wicket the side has lost three wickets for 35 runs.
Here’s the video
I hope Sarfaraz Khan scores a century.pic.twitter.com/FXARZUINc2
— . (@Pushpa__07) February 15, 2024
Sarfaraz Khan: First-class star
The 26-year-old has been a consistent performer of red ball in first-class cricket and the list A games as well. Sarfaraz has scored 3912 runs in 45 first-class matches at an average of 69.85. During this time, he has 14 hundreds and 11 fifties, and he has performed admirably for the India A squad in matches against the England Lions.
Sarfaraz hit 50 in the first unofficial Test and a stunning 161 in the second, helping India A win the series 2-0. In the 2021-22 season, the 26-year-old scored 982 runs in six matches, becoming the leading run-scorer. He scored 928 runs in six matches in 2019-20. In 2022-23, he scored 556 runs in six matches.
