Sarfaraz Khan (cricketer)

Sarfaraz was born and brought up in the suburbs of Mumbai. His family hails from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh. He spent most of his childhood in Azad Maidan. There Naushad Khan, his father and coach, nurtured young cricketers such as Iqbal Abdulla and Kamran Khan. His coaching began at an early age when his father discovered his talent of timing the ball well. In monsoon conditions it was difficult for him to reach the maidan (grounds) from his home in the suburbs, so a synthetic pitch was laid beside his house for practice. "Not only does it save our time and energy but it has also helped him get used to bouncier wickets that he will have to deal with later on," his father commented. He was unable to attend school for 4 years due to his cricket commitments, so a private tutor was employed for his maths and English classes. ==Youth and domestic career==

He came into the limelight when he broke the Harris Shield record of Sachin Tendulkar, set in 1988, by scoring 439 off 421 balls. It was his maiden Harris Shield game in 2009 when he was just 12 years old. He was playing for his school, Rizvi Springfield. The innings included 56 fours and 12 sixes. Sarfaraz Khan got to his 2nd successive hundred, this time an unbeaten 200-plus score in Round of Ranji Trophy at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium. Sarfaraz started his Ranji career with Mumbai when he played against Bengal in 2014. He started playing for Uttar Pradesh from the 2015–2016 season. By September 2019 he had played 11 first-class matches and has scored 535 runs with the highest score of 155. He had also played 12 list A matches and had scored 257 runs at a strike rate of 96.25. In the 2022 season of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Sarfaraz also began to don a new avatar as an occasional wicket-keeper. Although not a stranger to wicket-keeping in his junior playing days, this was his first time in senior cricket. His Test debut, postponed until February 2024, was followed by irregular selection for subsequent matches. He was notably omitted from the India-England Test series in 2025 and excluded from the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auctions majorly attributed to his weight management issues, in July 2025 he lost a remarkable 17 Kgs to get in shape. ==International career==

2024: International debut In 2024, Sarfaraz Khan earned his maiden Indian call-up due to injuries to Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul in the first Test against England in Hyderabad. On 15 February 2024, Sarfaraz Khan made his international debut in the third test against England in Rajkot. In his debut innings, Khan scored 62 runs off 66 balls and was run out on the non-strikers end after a mix-up with eventual centurion Ravindra Jadeja. His innings included 9 fours and a six. Khan's fifty came in 48 balls and was the joint-fastest 50 by an Indian cricketer on debut alongside Hardik Pandya's fifty which came against Sri Lanka in 2017. After the stumps on Day 1, Ravindra Jadeja shared a story on his Instagram account admitting his mistake and appreciating Khan's knock after the debutant got run out following the mix up with Jadeja. In the second innings of his debut test match Sarfaraz Khan scored 68 not out off 72 balls with a strike rate of 94.44. His innings included 6 fours and 3 sixes. With this knock Sarfaraz Khan became the fourth Indian cricketer to score twin fifties on Test debut joining the esteemed list with likes of Dilawar Hussain, Sunil Gavaskar and Shreyas Iyer. Sarfaraz's strike rate (94.2) is by far the highest among the 43 batters with two fifty-plus scores on debut in men's Tests (where balls-faced data is available). Khan made a 158 run partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal for fifth wicket at a run rate of 6.53 per over, this is the highest run-rate for an Indian pair which has added 150 or more runs in a Test innings and seventh highest run rate for 150-plus balls in men's Test(where data is available). It became the highest and the longest partnership scored at more than run-a-ball for India in men's Test. The partnership helped India set target of 557 for England in the 4th innings, the target set by India in Rajkot became the second highest for them in Test cricket behind the 617 against New Zealand in Wellington in 2009. This eventually led India to register victory over England by 434 runs, which is the biggest win by runs for India in Test cricket and the second biggest against England by any team, behind the 562-run win for Australia in 1934 at The Oval. == IPL career ==

After a good performance in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup, Sarfaraz was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2015 for 5 million. At an age of 17, he was the youngest player to have ever participated in an IPL match. In total in the IPL season for 2015, he played 13 matches and scored 111 runs at a strike rate of 156.33. He started the 2016 season quickly when he played a cameo of 35 runs off 10 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the 19th over he attacked the bowling of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, the best bowler of the tournament and scored 4 fours and a six. His teammate Chris Gayle commented that "He's too young and he's like a son to me. He's definitely one for the future and one must keep an eye on him." He kept on having short, eventful innings in the 2016 season for RCB. Eventually he was dropped from the team due to his lack of fitness. In 2016 he ended up played 5 matches and scored 66 runs at a strike rate of 212.90. Sarfaraz had a poor season and managed to score only 51 runs from six innings at a strike rate of 124.39. He scored 180 runs from eight matches at an average of 45 and a highest score of 67 runs. In December 2025, he was bought by the Chennai Super Kings in the auction for the 2026 Indian Premier League tournament for his base price of . ==Personal life ==

On 6 August 2023, Khan married Romana Zahoor, who is from the Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir. == Controversies ==

In 2011, a school team accused him of being overage. Bone tests showed him to have an age of 15 but according to the birth date registered with the Mumbai Cricket Association he was 13 years old. Sarfaraz and his father went for a second, advanced test. This time the resulting age matched with the registered birth date. Sarfaraz himself was disturbed by this controversy and it affected his emotional health. It took him two to three months to get his focus back on cricket. == References ==