BENGALURU: Rising Indian star Sarfaraz Khan carried forward his prolific domestic form on to the international area, notching up his maiden ton in his fourth Test match on day four against New Zealand, here on Saturday.
That it came on the back of a duck in the first innings made it special and so did the spirited fightback with the team pushed to a corner because of the terrible display with the bat that saw it collapse to a meagre 46 runs.
Coming in as a replacement for the injured Shubman Gill, Sarfaraz walked in to bat at No 4, a position that he has never played at before. He was one among the five ducks in India’s first innings, but he was a different player in the second innings.
He reached the three-figure mark with a lovely back-foot punch through deep covers. Understandably elated over the achievement after years of toiling to get into the squad, he ran across the field holding both his helmet and bat afloat.
“I’m very happy with the century, it was my first one playing for India. It has been my dream since childhood to play for the country and score tons, so I’m very happy,” said Sarfaraz speaking to the media.
The runs came flooding from the Mumbaikar’s bat, especially in the third man region where the batter has scored most runs in his innings with his late cut and upper cut shots.
Speaking on that choice of play, he said, “I like to play balls that come at good height. I have played on bouncy wickets and this one too was coming off pretty high. I like to cut those balls which come at those lengths. It’s fun to play those shots.”
Earlier this month, he also slammed a double century in the Irani Cup for Mumbai against Rest of India.