Long Read: The toil of Sarfaraz

Sarfaraz Khan is about half an hour into the conversation. He’s got his eye in and now come the characteric one-liners and filmy dialogues, this one from the movie M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. ‘Focus on the process’ is arguably the most overused phrase cricketers, but if there is someone whose entire exence has revolved round the ‘process’, it is Sarfaraz Khan.
Even today, eight years after he first played senior cricket for Mumbai as a teenager, the family of four – including his parents and younger brother Musheer – is up 4.50am. “We take 40-50 minutes to get ready, and are at the ground 6.40. It is still a bit dark, so I warm up running and then practise from 7 to 9. If there is Mumbai practice, it is from 11 to 2. Then I return home, rest for an hour, and practise from 4 to 6pm.”
The daily routine is to face 400 to 600 deliveries, the ‘process’ decreed cricket tragic father Naushad, who is also Sarfaraz’s coach, mentor, warden and unrelenting taskmaster. At times, Sarfaraz’s mind wanders to contemplate an exence others consider normal. “But then, I think about the difference between others my age and me. Some people are like ‘we should enjoy now and play when the time comes’. But we think there should be no gap at all. You should always be in touch. When you go out to bat in a match, you should not feel anything different, ki aata kaay (what now)? I have never felt in the middle, ‘what should I do now?’ I only keep batting and batting. Roz ka kaam hai (It’s daily work).”
Two years after ending the 2019-20 Ranji season with 177 against Madhya Pradesh, Sarfaraz kickstarted 2021-22 with 275 against Saurashtra and ended the group stage with 165 against Odisha. In nine first-class games for Mumbai since returning from Uttar Pradesh, he’s scored a staggering 1,479 runs at an average of 147.90 with five centuries in 13 innings; the lowest ton has been 165, the highest 301 not out. Last November, he made his maiden trip for India ‘A’ to South Africa, where he got two innings and made 71 not out against an all-international pace attack comprising Marco Jansen, Beuran Hendricks, Glenton Stuurman and Lutho Sipamla.

Sarfaraz Khan in Ranji Trophy this year:
275 vs Saurashtra63 & 48 vs Goa165 vs Odisha
He has been in red-hot form in Ranji Trophy this year 👏👏#SarfarazKhan #Mumbai #RanjiTrophy #Cricket pic.twitter.com/dRD1yzO95U
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) March 7, 2022
Does the process allow him to entertain the stray thought that he could, might, maybe just blink on the national selectors’ radar if he carries on like this? “Abbu (father) has told me ‘your attention should only be on the good length. The ball will come there, and you have to score off it’. Abbu says ‘do not leave that zone, do not look here and there’. Even when I am about to sleep, I am thinking about how to play. From morning to evening all I think about is cricket.”
Naushad is asked to let Sarfaraz be himself for this interview, and he readily agrees, but his shadow, unavoidably, looms large over the conversation. Sarfaraz mentions ‘abbu’ at least 20 times. “If he does not see me for five minutes, even if I am in the toilet, he’ll go,
‘Sarfaraz, kidhar hai (where are you)?’ ‘Papa, toilet mein hoon (in the toilet).’ ‘Okay, okay.’”
A young Sarfaraz with his father Naushad and younger brother Musheer
No respite
After hitting hundreds of balls every day, he either watches his own training videos – ‘you could have crouched a bit more in the stance’, his father will tell him – or whatever cricket is on television. Dinner is done 7.30 pm, and the lights are out 9. Sarfaraz is dead tired then, and falls asleep. “Abbu faltu hain (Father is useless), he does not let me go anywhere.” Sarfaraz is in his mid-20s, but his routine harks back to his schooldays.
Naushad drove Sarfaraz around Uttar Pradesh during the pandemic, whether its waves ebbed or rose, in the now-battered family car. Wherever he could get some game time. “At times, the car would hit an animal in the dark. There would be dents, but he’d keep driving. The car would be packed, we’d take an extra bowler or two. It would be bitterly cold, but we’d light a fire, warm our hands and bat.”
When he couldn’t, the terrace of the ancestral home near Azamgarh was converted into makeshift nets: blankets and bedsheets as side-netting, tables as wickets, near fields serving as a running track. The daily minimum of 400 balls had to be faced, anyhow.
Naushad’s knees hurt after ligament injuries, but he’s the first to wake everyone up at 4.50 am. He only knows that he has to make his sons work hard at play. “Abbu se koi nahi jeet sakta (nobody can win from father). Whoever comes in between will get sidelined.”
The fear of a lifetime’s single-minded pursuit not yielding results has always been there. “What if you are not able to progress… it is very important to have a proud moment for Abbu, and we are trying for that. The Ranji Trophy is big, people remember what you did. So somewhere, Abbu’s hard work has already succeeded. Musheer is also doing well. I feel he will do better than me. Bowling, batting, fitness, he has everything.”
Sarfaraz’s own idea of fitness is somewhat old school, and has cost him in the past. “To bat for two days and then field for two days is not easy, which I have been doing for years. I am quick between the wickets, my fielding is safe. But people want a body that looks thin.” He’s naturally stocky, like Rishabh Pant, but realises the need to get fitter.

The future Giants are here to take over.
Sarfaraz Khan, Armaan Jaffer & Prithvi Shaw played their 1st FC game together for Mumbai in #RanjiTrophy.
Both Sarfaraz and Armaan scored century. Prithvi Shaw is their captain.
Picture – Getty/Hindustan Times. pic.twitter.com/xnW2HDFnfi
— Kaushik (@_CricKaushik_) March 6, 2022
While he remains in the Indian Premier League 2022 bubble, Sarfaraz wants to make good use of the training facilities. Getting game time, though, remains uncertain. In IPL 2020, he got three innings; in IPL 2021, he got just two. He’s waiting to meet coach Ricky Ponting at Delhi Capitals and know where he fits in his new franchise’s plans.
Speaking of coaches, he is still averse to seeking advice on his game outside the family. “What do I ask? Should I ask someone who has known me since I was a kid or someone who has seen me for two days? I don’t ask much because I don’t want it to play on my mind if someone tells me to do this or that. Someone who brought me into this world… Only a family doctor can tell you what the problem is. When I was 10 or 12, Dad would tell me: ‘len to everyone but do as I say.’ I len only to him.”
It is revealing that he sees a bit of his father in Mumbai coach Amol Muzumdar’s disciplinarian style. “With Amol sir, I feel as if I am practising with Abbu, because that man makes you put in the hard yards. He is the first to arrive in the morning and when he leaves, his shirt is totally drenched. You can see how hard he works.”
Sarfaraz Khan looks on from the window in his hotel room after checking into the IPL bubble (Credit Ganesh Shirsekar)
All-format ambitions
Sarfaraz came into the limelight with his white-ball shots behind the wicket and had to then prove he was also a good red-ball player. And now, it is the white-ball opportunities that have dried up; he barely gets a game in the IPL, barely gets a hit for Mumbai with so much talent above him in the top and middle order. He talks about needing someone to invest some trust in him in the IPL.
“I can do better if someone gives me that confidence and has faith in me. It is the same when no one thought I could play red ball, but I knew I could if I got the opportunity, because I had been working for four-five years on my red-ball game. Similarly, the day will come when I will score in the IPL too.”

A lot of the red-ball preparation has taken place on the 18-yard artificial turf wicket right outside his ground-floor apartment at the Taximens Colony in Kurla. The pitch is watered Musheer and a friend while we talk to Sarfaraz. Later, he faces sidearm throwdowns with a practice swing ball, which is softer than the usual cricket ball but true to its name, moves around. Naushad had the surface installed around 2013 – he paid in installments – as he wanted his son to train on a quick wicket where the ball did kachkuch [jagged around].
“This wicket is very difficult, it gets into your head, you get hit. There is bounce, seam, swing, speed, everything. I remember one day, it just wasn’t happening for me, I had fought with Abbu, I threw away my equipment and stormed off. I said ‘I needed a vacation’. “People were expecting a lot from me, that last time he scored 1,000 runs, this time he’ll do the same. I had no expectations from myself. I knew I could do it but why should I take the extra load? I went in with the thought that whatever happens, we’ll see. I was very focused during practice with Mumbai. I’d take the swing ball with me and ask someone to bowl.” ‘Maarne ka nahi hai (Don’t attack),’ his father would keep reminding him. “I’d defend for two hours. We worked hard on the knowledge of where the off-stump is, leaving the ball, staying at the wicket. I am an attacking player but when an attacking player acquires a bit of patience, he becomes very dangerous.”
Now in the home net, two days after returning from Ranji duty, Sarfaraz attacks from the start to get into T20 mode. Ramps, cuts, pulls, whips, drives, straight hits. “It is not that I don’t have the shots. I want a team to give me confidence.”