Watch: Sarfaraz Khan, who is today (February 15) making his Test debut for India in the third Test against England in Rajkot, was bounced out by Mark Wood in an IPL 2023 game.
Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.
After scoring a mountain of runs in domestic cricket and waiting in the wings for a couple of years, Sarfaraz Khan finally got his chance when he made his Test debut for India in the Rajkot Test against England.
Slated to come in at No.5, Sarfaraz was pushed down the order to No.6 as India promoted Ravindra Jadeja to arrest an early collapse. Rohit Sharma’s wicket in the evening session of the first day after the India captain had crossed his 11th Test ton brought the debutant to the crease.
He had a tough initiation as Mark Wood was breathing fire, bowling a barrage of short balls with a field set for the same. Sarfaraz survived the early jitters and made his first Test runs off the sixth ball he faced, pushing a full toss down to long on for three off Wood.
[breakout id=”0″][/breakout]
While Sarfaraz was making his debut, it was not the first time he had come up against Wood. Last year during IPL 2023, the England seamer had got the better of Sarfaraz.
Playing for Delhi Capitals, Sarfaraz came out to bat at No.4 against the Lucknow Super Giants in a run-chase of 194. He struggled for nine deliveries, managing just four runs. Six off those nine balls were bowled by Wood, against whom Sarfaraz looked all at sea as the right-arm seamer bowled hard lengths at high pace.
Eventually, Sarfaraz was dismissed after getting himself into a weird position trying to upper cut a short ball, which somehow ended up at the hands of the deep fine leg fielder. Wood went on to take five wickets in the game.
Sarfaraz’s first few balls in Test cricket must have given him a flashback of this encounter, but he counter-attacked to bring up a maiden fifty off 48 balls.
