MUMBAI: Over the years, India’s T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav has won the hearts of millions of cricket fans and cricket experts with his brilliant, dynamic 360-degree strokeplay. There is also a quality of being ‘selfless’ to the core which has earned SKY massive respect amongst his younger teammates.On Friday, soon after he smashed a scintillating double century (227 off 219 balls) for Mumbai against a Hyderabad attack which included India pacer Mohammed Siraj in a Ranji Trophy match in Hyderabad, the highly consistent but unlucky Sarfaraz Khan acknowledged how SKY sacrificed his No. 3 spot for him during the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy earlier this season, even though India’s T20 captain has himself been struggling with form. It was a gesture which Sarfaraz credited for sparking his remarkable turnaround, as he smashed a 47-ball century against Assam to trigger his resurgence in white-ball cricket after he had begun the season with a few low scores in the Ranji Trophy.
“I hit Siraj for the biggest six of my life today (while batting on 180). The ball struck the second tier of the stadium and came back. I think I’m batting fearlessly now,” Sarfaraz told TOI from Hyderabad, before expressing his gratitude to Suryakumar.“Surya has played a massive role in how I turned around my form this season. When he came to play in SMAT, I hadn’t played in the first three matches. I only got a chance in the fourth match after Shivam Dube was injured. Surya made way for me to bat at No. 3. I scored an (unbeaten) 47-ball century, and from that day, my confidence and form have both gone upwards. I really want to thank Surya for giving me the chance to bat at No. 3 for Mumbai that day,” Sarfaraz said.“Five years back, Surya bhai gave me his No. 5 batting spot in the Mumbai team, and look where I am! And now, when I needed to bat at No. 3 as I wasn’t getting enough chances, he again gave me his spot,” he added.This isn’t the first time that Suryakumar has sacrificed his No. 3 spot. While captaining India, he had given the pivotal position to his talented Mumbai Indians batting colleague Tilak Varma—a fact acknowledged by the young left-hander when he smashed back-to-back centuries against South Africa while batting at the pivotal No. 3 spot in SA in Nov 2024.“Surya has seen how my father and I have worked since my childhood on my game. He has himself made it to the top through sheer hard work. This is why he is the Indian captain, because he puts others over himself. Surya is a fabulous captain because he thinks positively about the others in his team too,” gushed Sarfaraz while praising his ‘close friend.’In Feb 2024, it was Surya who had informed Sarfaraz’s father-cum-coach Naushad Khan to rush to Rajkot as Sarfaraz would be making his Test debut.Expressing his gratitude to SKY, Naushad told TOI, “Surya too needed to score runs in SMAT, as he hadn’t got a lot of runs in international cricket. If he wanted, he wouldn’t have done that for another cricketer. Sarfaraz needed to bat in the top four to prove his worth in T20 cricket. He was feeling down after being dropped from the first three matches, but didn’t look back after capitalising on that opportunity provided by Surya and has scored heavily in T20s after that. He was then rewarded for his tremendous form in SMAT when Chennai Super Kings picked him. I will remain thankful to Surya for this gesture,” said Naushad.Revealing why Suryakumar shares such a special bond with the Khans, Naushad recalled an incident. “Back in 2017, Surya was going through a lean patch and didn’t get many runs in the league phase of the Ranji Trophy, and was feeling low. He told me that he bats exactly like Sarfaraz, so he needed my help. I asked him to have a training session with me, during which we trained and saw a few of his videos. I told him a few things, and he slammed a century the next day—it was his first Ranji century that season. I think he feels gratitude for that help that day, and that’s why he keeps helping us.”Apart from passing on his No. 3 spot in the Mumbai batting line-up, Suryakumar also offered Sarfaraz some valuable advice, which helped the 28-year-old batter stage a sizzling white-ball turnaround this season, during which he scored 329 runs in seven matches with a strike rate of 203.08 and an average of 65.80 in SMAT.“Surya helped me a lot during SMAT. He exactly knows when to tell a player what. I used to play a lot of cheeky shots. Even I didn’t know that I could play so many good shots in front of the wicket. However, Surya gave me the confidence to do so. I scored a 47-ball century. After that, he left to play for Team India, so I became very nervous about my performance. However, his tips stayed with me and then I would keep talking to him on the phone. He just told me to work on things in which I was lacking, and that everything would be all right then. That really helped me,” Sarfaraz explained.Sarfaraz also thanked former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin for helping him cope with the reverse swing factor at Hyderabad. “I’ve played a lot of domestic cricket, but here in Hyderabad, it’s different because the ball starts reverse swinging after 18-20 overs. Azhar sir gave me a few tips on how to cope with reverse swing here,” Sarfaraz said.During the course of scoring his fifth double century in first-class cricket, Sarfaraz crossed the 5,000-run landmark in just his 61st first-class match. “I’m very happy to score 5,000 runs so early in my career. It’s a special moment. When I used to play at the Azad Maidan, I used to think that if I play in the Ranji Trophy, that would be a big achievement in life. Abbu used to tell me stories about Wasim Jaffer and Amol Muzumdar (domestic stalwarts). It’s not so easy to score so many runs in domestic cricket, playing home and away, so consistently,” Sarfaraz said.“Credit goes to my father for my fine form, because he makes me work hard. I’m doubly happy because I did so well in white-ball cricket, which I hadn’t done before, and earned an IPL contract too. I’ve made quite a few changes to my white-ball game, and in red-ball cricket, everyone knows my prowess—this is my fifth double century,” he concluded.
