MUMBAI: This is not turning out to be a good year for Sarfaraz Khan. A consistent run-getter in domestic cricket, at the start of 2025, Sarfaraz missed the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy, after returning from the tour of Australia where he didn't get a game, due to injury. After losing a good amount of weight, the 28-year-old enjoyed a good tour with India A in England, scoring a couple of 90s, but was still ignored from India's Test side for the England tour. He bounced back with back-to-back centuries in the Buchi Babu Tournament in Chennai, but a quadriceps injury ruled him out of action till the start of the Ranji Trophy. Things became bad to worse as he was even snubbed by the national selectors while picking the India A team for the home 'tests' against South Africa A.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!For a man used to scoring hundreds - he has 16 hundreds, and boasts of an average of 63.73 and run tally of 4780 runs in 58 first-class matches, the 28-year-old is yet to cross fifty so far in this Ranji Trophy season, having made 42, 32, 1, 15 and 5 not out in three matches. Overall, the domestic run-machine has scored just 95 runs in three matches@23.75 in the Ranji Trophy this season.
On Friday, the eve of Mumbai's league stage Ranji Trophy match against Himachal at the MCA ground in BKC, senior batter Siddhesh Lad, while recognising that repeated snubs can be "demotivating" for any cricketer, asserted that the Mumbai dressing room is firmly behind Sarfaraz, and that his teammates are ready to lift his spirits “any way we can."
"At the end of the day, he is a human being and everyone makes some mistakes. There is always that (rough) patch for big players. If we look at the last 4-5 years, he has consistently scored runs. Somewhere, it could be demotivating as a player but at this time, it is up to us as a team and support staff as to how do we lift him up? We know his potential and if he plays (well), he will play big innings. As a team, we will try to lift his confidence in any way we can," Lad said.
At this point, Sararaz and Mumbai's fortunes are interlinked with each other. If he bounced back with a couple of big scores, the middle-order bat would have proved a point and his worth once again. Tied at 10 points each in Elite Group D with Hyderabad, the 42-time champions will hope for Sarfaraz to rediscover his consistency in their two matches at home - they play Puducherry from Nov 16 - before the Ranji Trophy season halts for a two-month break.
For the last few years, the Mumbai team has preferred to play its Ranji Trophy matches at the BKC over the Wankhede Stadium. Lad feels that the team has developed a better understanding of the pitch here. It helps that the wicket offers generous purchase to their prolific spin twins - Shams Mulani and Tanush Kotian, especially on days Three & Four.
"Both these matches are very important for us. We have to finish the first leg well. I feel as a team we have done well. We made some mistakes in the first innings (against Rajasthan) but we have learned from our mistakes. Of course, if you are playing at your home, you know the conditions, (and) everything about the pitch. We are well prepared in that way. We know that it is very important to win both the games for us if we want to qualify in the knockout stage," Lad said.
Mumbai started their campaign this season with a thrilling win against Jammu & Kashmir in Srinagar, gained first innings lead points over Chhattisgarh at home, but then struggled against Rajasthan at Jaipur. Having conceded a huge 363-run lead in the first innings, they managed to wrest a draw only due to a century (156) by India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored 67 in the first innings of that match.
Lad was pleased that opener Musheer Khan, Sarfaraz's younger brother, overcame his lean patch at Jaipur. "We didn't give an outright win (to Rajasthan). We batted really well in the second inning. Especially Yashasvi and Musheer Khan. (We are) very happy (that) Musheer is back in form. We know he has got the potential to score big runs," he said.
Having accumulated just four points after three matches, with two draws and one defeat, Himachal are lying at the seventh spot in the Elite Group D points table. Asked about whether his side was feeling the heat coming into this game against a big side, Himachal captain Ankush Bains said, “There’s no pressure on us about playing against Mumbai. We are taking this positively. We have defeated Mumbai once or twice in One-dayers before. We’ve come to play good cricket, and we’ll do that.”
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