India batter Sarfaraz Khan, who wasn't a part of the playing XI for any of the two Tests against Bangladesh, slammed a century in the Irani Cup for Mumbai, sending the team management a clear message. Sarfaraz, despite his heroics in domestic red-ball games, hasn't quite managed to cement his place in the Test playing XI. While Sarfaraz was a part of the India squad for the 2-match series against Bangladesh, he was released on both occasions -- first for the Duleep Trophy, then for the Irani Cup.
Playing for Mumbai in the Irani Cup, Sarfaraz slammed a hundred on Wednesday, in what was his 15th triple-digit score in First Class cricket. Sarfaraz also reached the landmark in just 150 balls, showing intent to play a positive brand of cricket.
For Mumbai, Rahane and Sarfaraz added 98 runs by the end of Day 1 as Mumbai put a score of 237 on the board for the loss of 4 wickets. The duo added 43 more runs to the partnership on Day 2 before Rahane was dismissed by Yash Dayal, missing out on a deserved hundred by just 3 runs.
Sarfarz and Shams Mulani then tried to stitch a partnership together before the latter was dismissed by Mukesh Kumar. Sarfarz was later joined by Tanush Kotian and the duo put 58 runs together to guide Mumbai to 338 for 6 by lunchtime in Lucknow. Sarfaraz then went on to score a century in the 92nd over of the innings and remained unbeaten on 103 off 155 balls at lunch.
Sarfarz's ton also placed him in the legendary company of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, who each have two centuries in the Irani Cup tournament.
The likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Polly Umrigar, and Yashasvi Jaiswal, also have two centuries to their name in the Irani Cup. Dilip Vengsarkar and Gundappa Viswanath sit at the numero uno spot with the joint record of scoring the most centuries in the tournament (4). Players like Hanuma Vihari, Abhinav Mukund, Sunil Gavaskar, and Wasim Jaffer have three centuries each in the tournament.
While the Indian team would now start preparation for the T20I series against Bangladesh, Sarafarz would hope to continue impressing the management and find a place in the roster for the forthcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour of Australia.
The middle-order batter has the credentials to his name but is behind KL Rahul in the pecking order at the moment.