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Sarfaraz Khan has just hit his maiden Test century to all but formalize his place in India's squad for the all-important tour of Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy in November 2024-January 2025.
Coming to bat at 95/2, under pressure by not just the team's 300-plus deficit but also his duck in the first innings, Sarfaraz put up a brilliant 136-run stand alongside Virat Kohli on Friday. On Saturday, he went from 70-odd to his century in no time and upped the ante further after reaching his 100.
No matter what the result on Day 5, the fact that India could stay in contention of the Test despite getting all-out for 46 in the first innings would make it memorable. And with it, Sarfaraz's innings of 150 (195) would become immortal.
If India haven't seen this as an inspiration to why Sarfaraz should be more than just a squad player warming the bench in Australia, here we give three detailed reasons for it:
#3 Neutralizing Nathan Lyon
The first big fear factor about going to Australia and playing a Test series for any side is the hosts' bowling attack. Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon form one of the most perfect quartet in world cricket which is why they have been able to play together for years.
In matches/innings where spin isn't playing a big role, Lyon holds one end, biding his time and reading batters. As soon as he gets friendlier wickets, he becomes a beast and the three quicks become holding bowlers, creating rough patches for him.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant were India's reply to Lyon on the last tour. Both used their feet excellently and with solid defense and ruthless attack, respectively, managed to find runs and keep him away from big hauls for most of the series.
India can take that a notch higher this time. Sarfaraz is one of India's best players of spin and the Test against New Zealand showed how good his attacking partnership with Pant can be even when the ball is turning and gripping a bit.
By playing Sarfaraz alongside Pant in the 11, India might be able to score a substantial number of runs and largely neutralise Lyon's threat on all surfaces in most innings. Australia are so habitual of seeing him do well that it might push them to think out of the box and change tactics. For instance, bringing an extra bowler to help out with the old ball.
With Cameron Green also absent, this could put immense pressure on the pacers to find wickets. These could be some new areas of weaknesses that India might be able to exploit and dominate.
#2 Short ball prowess
Lazy analysts tend to limit Sarfaraz to be some sort of a turning-track messiah but he's much more than that. The right-hander has proven himself across conditions on 'A' tours (like South Africa last year) and has played and performed in a bigger variety of conditions on the domestic circuit than some international players in the last two years.
The same analysis, interestingly, was made for Pant before Sydney in 2021 and he proved everyone wrong. Sarfaraz has been showing signs too: New Zealand tried to bounce him out on Saturday many a time, perhaps believing that it could be a chink in his armor, but he handled that ploy impressively.
Coming from Mumbai, he shouldn't be as troubled at Perth as most new visiting batters are. His state teammates Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and even Shardul Thakur have found good success on pacy Australian tracks in recent years and Sarfaraz doing the same can't be ruled out either.
#1 Appetite for big scores
Another lazy criticism associated with Sarfaraz is that he's only a run "accumulator" and can't play impactful cameos like Pant when needed. Firstly, it can't be further from the truth and his strike rate of nearly 80 in his knock against the Kiwis showed that.
But Sarfaraz's best skill is that he can notch massive knocks and accumulate centuries and 150s at those high-intent strike rates. His double-century in the recent Irani Cup came at a similar ~80 strike rate too.
India's middle-order lacks that kind of appetite at the moment. Pant has got out in 90s seven times now, which tells how much he likes batting in the same pace. It has been a long time since Kohli has gone much beyond a hundred away from home while KL Rahul's Test form has been non-existent.
Sarfaraz's versatility allows him to switch between Pujara and Pant according to the match situation and score daddy hundreds at will. These are the exact skills you need to win/not lose games in Melbourne and Sydney, and India doesn't have them in abundance since Pujara's departure.
Sarfaraz's skills don't make him a gamble but almost too good to be dropped. There's a huge opportunity for India going through Sarfaraz; it's only about whether the team can be courageous enough to spot it.
