Sanjay Manjrekar, a former Indian cricketer and now a commentator, praised India batter Sarfaraz Khan especially after the conclusion of day 3 of the first test match between India and New Zealand. After scoring his half-century at more than a run a ball, Sarfaraz finished the day not out on 70 from 78 balls. There was much admiration from Manjrekar denied for him by praising and comparing him with Javed Miandad, Pakistan’s great batsman. In that aspect, Manjrekar considered Sarfaraz to be equally proficient, whether it was about offensive or defensive batting, calling him a ‘Javed Miandad of future, 2024.’
On fourth day of the test, Sarfaraz Khan was successful in scoring his maiden test century in only 110 balls.
Sanjay, who was appearing on ESPNcricinfo’s YouTube channel, said, “I think Sarfaraz is that Javed Miandad from the 1980s, but quite frankly, this is a Javed Miandad of the year, 2024.”
“Really impressed with the way he played. We know he plays spin well but I liked the way he played fast bowlers though,” Manjrekar added.
For Miandad, there is more than 16,000 runs worth of Test and ODI cricket for Pakistan with a Test average of a staggering 52.57 which is why Manjrekar thinks such high praise is appropriate for Sarfaraz.
The beginning of the Test wasn’t easy for Sarfaraz, as he faced the ignominy of being dismissed for a duck after his team could manage only 46 runs and got all out. Nevertheless, with the potential of Shubman Gill in the squad, Sarfaraz was given a chance to come in the second innings during India’s recovery phase and was quite a praise performer.
Manjrekar offered his respect and admiration of seeing how Sarfaraz approached the game especially in the latter part of the day’s play.
“At that point, there was enough sunlight and he was trying to defend and was looking for the bad light. How interesting it was that he was endevouring to avoid bouncers, as it was a matter of playing out the day’s play for him. Such a quality is possessed by him and that is very good news for India and Sarfaraz Khan in Australia because he has displayed that side of batting as well,” said Manjrekar further.
In the second innings, Sarfaraz shared a 136-run stand with Virat Kohli, who was the last batsman dismissed on the last ball of Day 3.
