RAJKOT: Tears of joy were shed at the
Niranjan Shah Stadium
here on Thursday prior to the start of the third Test. After an arduous wait,
Sarfaraz Khan
was finally awarded his long-due India cap, becoming the 74th Mumbaikar to play Test cricket. The 26-year-old hugged his father Naushad tightly.
Naushad, in turn, broke down while kissing the cap, and Sarfaraz’s wife Romana too let the tears flow. “They were tears of happiness. I’ve seen a lot, both moments of sadness and happiness, but never cried before. This was a moment when any father would have turned emotional,” Naushad told TOI. Naushad was initially reluctant to travel to Rajkot from Mumbai. However, it was a nudge from India’s T20 star Suryakumar Yadav which prompted him to book his ticket.
“I wasn’t too well and didn’t feel like coming to Rajkot. It was Surya who told me that I should be going to watch Sarfaraz’s
Test debut
, and not miss this moment, since it wouldn’t come again. He told me that his parents and wife too had come to the stadium for his Test debut. Since I booked a ticket at the last minute, my wife couldn’t come here,” Naushad said.
His father, who doubles up as his coach, means the world to Sarfaraz. “Runs and performances were not on my mind as much. I was happy playing for India in front of my father. He was not ready to come but some people insisted that he come here. He worked so hard only for this day. He was very emotional when I took the cap to him. So was my wife. I felt as if some pressure was off my shoulders, given the hard work he had put in on me. I did not waste it,” Sarfaraz said.
The way things transpired, his father coming to the ground, receiving the cap from India’s leg spin great Anil Kumble and then smashing a stroke-filled half-century was indeed a dream come true for Sarfaraz, who termed it the “proudest moment” of his life.
“I was six years old when I started playing cricket. It was my dream to play for India. It was my father’s dream to play for India but unfortunately it couldn’t happen and there wasn’t much support from home then. Then he worked very hard on me and my brother,” said Sarfaraz.
English (US) ·