Former Mumbai captain and chief selector Milind Rege reckoned Mumbai batsman Sarfaraz Khan’s consistent performances in first-class cricket are incomparable and unbelievable. On Tuesday, Sarfaraz’s 125 (16×4, 4×6) helped Mumbai to post 293 against Delhi on Day One of their Elite Group ‘B’ Ranji Trophy at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
It was Sarfaraz’s 13th first-class hundred and he has scored 556 runs in six Ranji games this season so far, which includes three centuries.
“Sarfaraz has been in tremendous form, there is no question about it. But there has to be a place in the [Indian Test team] batting line-up.
His form is incomparable and unbelievable. Wherever there is an opportunity I think he will get his chance. But right now, where is the place?” Rege told mid-day on Tuesday.
Rege, who was a Mumbai selector when Sachin Tendulkar played his first Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat in 1988 and was a Mumbai chief selector when Prithvi Shaw made Mumbai debut against Tamil Nadu in 2017, remarked: “Keep performing but making ridiculous comments doesn’t help matters. Sarfaraz should refrain from making comments against his [India] selection. His job is to score runs. He has to concentrate on his batting.”
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Rege wants the Mumbai batsman to take help from Mumbai head coach Amol Muzumdar. “When Amol is your Mumbai coach, why did he need his father [Naushad Khan] to coach him. I read a quote in a Marathi newspaper that he had called his father to coach him [in Delhi]. When a man like Amol, who scored more than 11,000 first-class runs is a Mumbai coach, Sarfaraz should look at Amol’s plight and carry on with the game. Amol scored plenty of runs, but he was never selected because there was no place in the national side,” Rege remarked.
