Naushad Khan, father of Sarfaraz Khan, talked about breaking down after his son received his India Test cap on day 1 of the ongoing third Test against England in Rajkot. Sarfaraz Khan made his ling awaited India debut after brilliant Ranji Trophy performances in recent times.
The Mumbai batter was presented his Test cap legendary leg-spinner Anil Kumble. As Kumble presented Sarfaraz with his Test cap at Rajkot, his father-cum-coach Naushad Khan was left emotional on seeing the scenes unfolding in front of his eyes.
Naushad Khan, who has worked hard on preparing both his sons, Sarfaraz and Musheer, for cricket, hugged the elder one and kissed the Indian badge on the Test cap, even as Sarfaraz was wiping off the tears from his wife’s eyes.
“First of all, I want to thank the almighty who let me see the day. The tears are of happiness. I have been waiting for this moment and many times I thought of crying. But I was the father and also the coach and it would not have been good if I had cried. That’s why, I could not hold it today.
Every coach and father has the belief that his son will one day play for the country. But the world believes only when he receives the cap. I never thought that it would always remain a dream. I knew that it would take time, have seen many. Some of them would get it early. Some would have to wait for long,” Naushad said on JioCinema.
Sarfaraz Khan has been a prolific run-scorer in the last few years in domestic cricket for Mumbai and of late, got the big runs for India ‘A’ in their series against England Lions.
In 45 first-class matches, Sarfaraz has made 3,912 runs at an astonishing average of 69.85, including 14 hundreds and 11 fifties. Last month, he made scores of 96, 4, 55 and 161 in the practice match and four-day games against England Lions at Ahmedabad.
He got his maiden call-up to the Indian team when he was named in the squad for the second Test in Visakhapatnam after KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja were ruled out due to injuries, but Rajat Patidar made his debut.
When Shreyas Iyer was dropped from the India squad for the last three Tests against England, Sarfaraz Khan finally got his India debut and become the 311th Test cricketer for India.
