Sarfaraz's patient, inspiring rise to elusive Test cricket arena

To better understand the forces that drive India's newest Test batting sensation Sarfaraz Khan, it's prudent to note the presence and persistence of his father, coach and mentor Naushad. 

For casual observers of Indian cricket, Sarfaraz's rise to Test cricket earlier this year and his stunning maiden century in a dramatic India fightback against New Zealand at Bengaluru last month neatly fitted an oft-seen storyline. 

But far from being another overnight sensation plucked from the seemingly inexhaustible domestic ranks of world cricket's increasingly resource-rich superpower, Sarfaraz is the product of a painstaking 25-year-plan to produce an international player. 

And while Naushad Khan's grooming of his now 27-year-old son began with hour-long training sessions using plastic ball and bat at the family's beyond-basic apartment in Mumbai when Sarfaraz was aged two, the genesis extends back even further. 

Naushad Khan was a middle-order batter and left-arm spinner who held lofty cricket ambitions that carried him as far as Maharashtra's under-19 team and a squad of 'probables' on the periphery of Mumbai's powerful first-class set-up. 

But at age 28, shortly after Sarfaraz was born, he realised that ambition would remain unrealised and he channelled his passion for cricket into coaching. 

He would make regular trips to his family's home town Azamgarh, 1600km north-east of Mumbai in Uttar Pradesh and return with a retinue of aspiring young cricketers who would be housed in the cramped apartment where Naushad's wife, Tabussum, cooked and cleaned for the additional boys. 

To fund this speculative coaching enterprise as well as feed his own family, Naushad drove a taxi and also sold track pants and caps outside Mumbai's Kurla train station which sees on average 380,000 commuters every day. 

He also undertook odd jobs in the city's nearby slums alongside his coaching commitments centred around Azad Maidan, the 10-hectare expanse of dusty red playing fields wedged between Wankhede Stadium and the city's heaving Indira Docks. 

"We were living a very poor life, but we had a rich dream," Naushad Khan, now 53, would say years later. 

Azad Maidan was where Naushad earned the nickname 'Macho' during his combative playing days that extended into his 40s, and that was the name he bestowed on the team he formed which included many from his coaching stable. 

The most notable of that cohort was another left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla, who Naushad had plucked from poverty in Azamgarh and tutored to earn selection in India's fabled 2008 under-19 World Cup team that triumphed under the captaincy of Virat Kohli. 

But after Iqbal rose to the riches of IPL cricket with Kolkata Knight Riders, where he was named the lucrative league's rising star in 2011, he reputedly turned his back on his former mentor with his departing words burning deep in Naushad's memory. 

"I had the ability, so I played," Iqbal, who retired from all cricket last year, allegedly told his childhood coach. 

"If you have the talent, then make your son play and show the world." 

Sarfaraz had already been a cricket-obsessed fixture at Azad Maidan from infancy. 

The chaotic and competitive breeding ground for so many emerging talents - including Sarfaraz's current India Test teammate Yashasvi Jaiswal - was where Naushad took his eldest son when he wasn't in school. 

Like Jaiswal, Sarfaraz slept in a 'clubhouse' tent on the playing field's perimeter although not as an impoverished resident as was the case for the incumbent Test opener. 

Rather, the very young Sarfaraz would take naps under the canvas shelter during matches, surrounded by kit bags of his father's teammates to provide protection lest the snoozing boy be struck by the ball. 

It wasn't much longer before Sarfaraz himself was out in the middle, sending the ball hurtling over the boundary and into adjoining games as his batting gained renown. 

Under his father's strict regime including training sessions that sometimes began before dawn, Sarfaraz debuted in Mumbai's adult Kanga Cricket League (played during Mumbai's monsoon season) aged 10, a record since broken by his younger brother Musheer who played his first game in the competition at eight. 

It was when he progressed to Mumbai's Harris Shield school league that Sarfaraz came to broader notice. 

In 2009, aged 12, he plundered 439 from 421 balls, a feat that rivalled future Test great Sachin Tendulkar's legendary 664-run partnership with Vinod Kambli, as well as Prithvi Shaw's staggering knock of 546 in the same prestigious competition. 

Sarfaraz's school coach at Rizvi Springfield, Raju Pathak (who also oversaw the development of Shaw and Jaiswal), claimed the fundamentals young batters learn on the over-trafficked tracks of Azad Maidan made the transition to higher levels much simpler. 

"The pitches at Azad Maidan are bald and dusty; your footwork against spin, your ability to play the turning ball, is honed on such tracks," Pathak said in an interview. 

"When you get to play on the Gymkhana (Tendulkar's former club) it feels easy, and when you then play on Wankhede (Mumbai's Test venue), it's a piece of cake." 

But Sarfaraz's growing celebrity also invited controversy. 

In 2011, he was accused of misleading authorities about his true age when birth records showed he was 13 but bone density tests suggested he was closer to 15, with Naushad Khan forced to enlist more advanced medical scrutiny to clear them of impropriety. 

No sooner was Sarfaraz back playing than Mumbai Cricket Association's indoor academy dismissed him from one of their training camps due to ill-discipline. 

"There was a time when the constant criticism started getting to him and the kid just wanted to give up," Naushad said of his son a decade ago. 

"It was then that I had to constantly remind him of our biggest goal: to play international cricket.  

"It took him time to realise it but once he did, he knew that such small battles will have to be overcome for achieving the real thing. 

"After whatever he has seen at such a young age, he keeps on saying he wants to do it for me.  

"After all, he has seen all those whom his father helped distance themselves from him once they achieved fame." 

Sarfaraz knuckled down and scored heavily for Mumbai's under-19s, earning selection for India under-19s in a 2014 quadrangular tournament (also featuring Australia) where he peeled off an imperious 101 off 62 balls against South Africa. 

He then made his first-class debut for Mumbai that year, shortly after his 17th birthday, and the following year he debuted for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL and batted in tandem with Kohli in his maiden match. 

He was still aged 16 (and youngest in the squad) when named for India's under-19 World Cup campaign in 2014, which meant he had ticked off another achievement from the benchmarks laid down by his father's disgruntled pupil, Iqbal Abdulla. 

Sarfaraz played all six matches at that tournament in the UAE alongside teammates Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson and Kuldeep Yadav, and was young enough to take part in the event's next iteration in Bangladesh two years later. 

But he also continued to polarise, dropped from Mumbai's team in 2015 for making offensive gestures towards selectors following a winning performance in a finals game with his match payments withheld for two years as a form of good behaviour bond. 

It led Sarfaraz to move from Mumbai to his father's former family home of Azamgarh to represent Uttar Pradesh, in a bid for a fresh start and greater opportunities. 

Despite being India's leading scorer at the 2016 under-19 World Cup (which Australia did not attend due to security concerns) with 355 runs at an average of 71 including five half-centuries, then coach and former Test legend Rahul Dravid offered qualified praise. 

"I think he's had a very good tournament in terms of numbers and stats," said Dravid who went on to coach India's men's team. 

"But I think if he's honest with himself, he'll know that he should have converted some of those into one or two hundreds." 

Naushad accepted Dravid's assessment noting his son could have finished that World Cup campaign with four centuries, and the pair went back to the practice nets at Azad Maidan with the goal of curbing Sarfaraz's impetuosity. 

They also devoted significant time addressing the feeling within first-class ranks the stocky youngster was susceptible to short-pitched bowling, with countless drills focused on Sarfaraz ducking, weaving or dropping to his knees to avoid bouncers. 

However, there was also a growing sense within the Khan household that Sarfaraz was being shunned by India's cricket establishment and it was only through sustained eye-catching performances he might force their hand. 

Compelled to spend a 'cooling off' period on the sidelines after quitting Uttar Pradesh and transferring back to Mumbai, Sarfaraz trained to produce longer, more patient innings. 

He and Naushad also identified the pitch conditions for each upcoming game and tailored training at the Maidan to replicate what lay ahead, whether it be sharp spin or reverse swing. 

Concerned at the precious time being lost while commuting to and from practice facilities, Naushad installed an all-weather 20-yard synthetic pitch outside the family home at Taximens Colony, the 1970s co-operative housing settlement established by Mumbai's cab drivers alongside the mud flats of the oozing Mithi River. 

The hard surface helped Sarfaraz further hone his game on bouncier pitches, and the results of the pair's intensive practice were obvious when the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy first-class season kicked off. 

It had been a burning aspiration for both son and father for Sarfaraz to make his mark in Mumbai colours, which he did against his former outfit Uttar Pradesh at the famed Wankhede Stadium in January 2020. 

After the visitors piled on 8(dec)-625, 22-year-old Sarfaraz went to the wicket midway through day three with Mumbai 4-128 and almost 500 runs in deficit. 

By stumps that day he was 132no and, after the Mumbai coach asked Naushad to deliver his son a pep talk overnight to ensure he did not throw away his wicket on resumption, he pushed on next day to remain unbeaten on 301 at game's end. 

His name now sat alongside genuine Mumbai heroes, the likes of Vijay Merchant, Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar and Rohit Sharma as triple century-makers at Ranji Trophy level. 

Less than a week later, Sarfaraz posted an unconquered 226 in a rain-ruined game against Himachal Pradesh at Dharamsala where no other batter managed to reach 65. 

His technique had clearly tightened and his temperament seemed more mellow, but Sarfaraz refused to totally eschew the extravagant ramps, uppercuts and reverse sweeps that had become signature shots in his adolescence. 

"They are my speciality," he said at the time. 

"I’ve worked hard on them under the hot sun in Maidans." 

Despite finishing that Ranji Trophy season averaging 154.7, then 122.7 in the next (the 2020-21 campaign was cancelled due to COVID-19) and 92.7 from the six games he played for Mumbai in 2022-23, he continued to be ignored by India's Test selectors. 

After completing yet another first-class hundred during that remarkable run, Sarfaraz pointed angrily and beseechingly towards the grandstand as if demanding his talent be recognised by the national hierarchy. 

But there remained dissenting voices who whispered about the feisty right-hander's attitude when he wasn't in the middle with bat in hand, and also a general lack of fitness as reasons for his ongoing exclusion. 

On the latter point, Sarfaraz found a powerful ally in Gavaskar who pointed out no batter who is manifestly unfit can score regular centuries let alone doubles and triples, adding that if selection was based upon physical aesthetics then teams "might as well go for a fashion show and pick some of the models". 

"I used to ask my father, will I ever play for India?," Sarfaraz said as debate about his suitability for a Test cap raged on. 

"He used to tell me that despite obstacles, you have to continue going ahead.  

"My father told me that when you play your next domestic match, assume you are playing for India.  

"So, I had only one job that whenever I played, I wanted to score runs." 

Having averaged 73 (strike rate 93) in two games against an England A team that complemented Tests between the two nations, Safaraz's dream - and his father's lifelong project - were finally realised in February this year when he replaced injured KL Rahul in the starting line-up for the third match against Ben Stokes's team at Rajkot. 

Vision of Sarfaraz receiving his Test cap from former India great Anil Kumble - and then sharing the moment with his wife (Romana) as well as his tearful father, who kissed the fabled deep blue fabric - went viral. 

Naushad Khan later revealed he was initially reluctant to attend Sarfaraz's maiden Test (where the debutant scored 62 and 68no) because he feared his presence might place unwarranted pressure on his son. 

However, he changed his mind after receiving a message from Sarfaraz's Mumbai teammate and India-capped batter Suryakumar Yadav who spelled out to Naushad the significance of the impending occasion. 

Naushad, who notes Sarfaraz wears his father's name on his India shirt number 97 (nau is Hindi for nine; saat for seven) was also invited for a guest stint in the host broadcaster's commentary box during that auspicious match. 

Asked if he felt 26-year-old Sarfaraz had been forced to wait too long for a Test cap given the sheer volume of runs he had churned out over so many preceding years, Naushad chose philosophical rather than fighting words. 

"Give the night its due time to pass," he told India's vast cricket audience. 

"The sun will rise in its own time." 

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: November 22-26: Perth Stadium, 1.20pm AEDT

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: (first Test only) Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed