Sarfaraz Khan was the cynosure of all eyes in match no. 29 of the Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 played between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore on Wednesday.
Not only did he entertain the spectators at the stadium, but also was lauded by some big names in cricket. Twitterati went delirious with his impressive knock.
Commentators were the first ones to comment about this young lad. Harsha Bhogle tweeted, "Sarfaraz Khan. Cheeky. Audacious. Attitude. Can bat."
He was followed by Tom Moody, the coach of Sunrisers Hyderbad (SRH). His tweet read, "Only in India will you see such enormous talent on the big stage so early! #SarfarazKhan #Impressive #PepsiIPL."
Former England cricketer and now a commentator, David 'Bumble' Lloyd heaped praise on him as well. "Counties ..This lad is the one if you can get him ..Sarfaraz Khan...a 17 yo lad with ambition .....far better than a 'retired' international."
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan tweeted, "My word.... 17 yrs old.... Sarfaraz Khan... Incredible talent.... #RCBvRR #IPL2015."
VVS Laxman too expressed his delight on Twitter after watching Khan's knock. He tweeted, "Enjoyed the entertaining knock from Sarfaraz. Liked his fearless approach.He is just 17 but looked confident&mature. #talent #future."
After the match, the owner of RCB, Vijay Mallya also expressed his happiness. "RCB @RCBTweets proved its batting depth led by AB @ABdeVilliers17 as usual and with our baby Sarfaraz Khan's fearless n magnificent effort," he said in his tweet.
RCB were 124 for 4 after 13.5 overs when Sarfaraz Khan came out to bat. Dinesh Karthik ran Ab de Villiers out who was shaping the innings quite well. Everybody watching the match thought it was a big blow to RCB as they might just get derailed. Who would have thought that the Mumbai Under-19 batsman would overshadow the likes of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and Ab de Villiers. There have been few occasions in the past when the cricketing world got to see such a spectacular performance. He propelled RCB to a commendable total of 200 for 7 at the end of 20 overs. So impressed was skipper Kohli that he came out of the dugout and bowed down before Sarfaraz, showing respect for his blistering knock.
Sarfaraz came into the spotlight in 2009 when he broke all records in the Harris Shield inter-school tournament, scoring 439 for Rizvi Springfield against Indian Education Society. His father Naushad Khan is a well known coach in the Mumbai cricketing circuit and Khan used to accompany his father to the famous Azad Maidan in South Mumbai. Naushad's passion for cricket helped Sarfaraz to fulfil his dreams of becoming a cricketer. Iqbal Abdulla, who shares the dressing room with Sarfaraz at RCB, was also trained under Naushad once. The way he batted against the Royals, it was clear he has a bright future.
