India vs England: years of father son dream to play for India that was reality in Rajkot

On Thursday, Naushad Khan shed tears when he witnessed his son Sarfaraz hit 62 against England in his Test debut.

Every rainy season, Mumbai is without cricket for nearly four months. The players practice for preseason fitness at this time. However, there is never a break for one family. The Khans, father Naushad and sons Sarfaraz and Musheer, make sure the game continues regardless of the weather. When Mumbai experiences rainy season, Sarfaraz and Musheer’s father takes them to train at their ancestral home in Uttar Pradesh.

For example, Sarfaraz left Mumbai’s cricket activities right after the 2023 IPL and returned to his village to be ready for the Duleep Trophy. His father-coach had established a demanding schedule that included an hour of fielding practice, a run from 4 to 5, a gym from 5 to 6, and an early wake-up at 3 am. Three-hour net sessions were scheduled for the evenings. Naushad takes his sons to anywhere he can set up games in Uttar Pradesh for match practice; the distance doesn’t matter.

The training has always been intense when in Mumbai. Sarfaraz used to get up at five, bat at Cross Maidan (Karnataka SA) from six to seven, and then head to the Wankhede Stadium to train with the Mumbai team from 8.30 am to one pm, even during the pandemic when the team’s camp was in session. He would train from 2 to 4 p.m. at home.

The training hours don’t change; just the location. When Sarfaraz was six years old, Naushad took him to Azad Maidan for practice, where he would bat for many hours each day. Following the inclusion of the pitch area in the metro rail project, the training was moved to the nearby Cross Maidan.

Sarfaraz was busy getting ready for his Test debut at the Karnataka SA field even in the interim following the second Test in Visakhapatnam. “The father and his sons never tire; they are constantly on the ground. India of Sarfaraz On January 28, after the England Lions match concluded in Ahmedabad, he arrived at our pitch at 630 in the morning, before the sun had come up. He was once more at our ground for practice the day following the second Test. “Musheer remains the same; their dedication is astounding,” remarked Deepak Lotlikar, the KSCA cricket ground supervisor.

This is the story of the Khans, to put it briefly. Naushad isn’t a highly skilled coach or a first-rate cricket player. However, he has shaped his sons’ professions with unimaginable dedication and fervor. Their commitment and discipline are unparalleled. Naushad’s guys have to be ready for practice before dawn, thus the lights at home must go out by 9.30pm.

You can know that his response to a question regarding workload management will be, “What’s that?” Between games or tournaments, there is no respite. In the absence of competitive matches, he reserves a field, gathers a team of eleven players, and assigns his kids to bat all day. Sarfaraz’s elbows and wrists never hurt.

Those who saw Naushad when he was younger, when he played office cricket for Western Railway and club cricket for Young Friends Cricket Cub, may notice a striking physical similarity between the father and son. On the maidans, Naushad was referred to as “Macho” by the locals. Soon, everyone started referring to Sarfaraz by the same name.

Sarfaraz knew he couldn’t fail because Naushad had put in so much in him. When Sarfaraz received his Test cap (No.311) on Thursday, a tremendous weight was taken off his shoulders. “It was great to receive the cap and touch the ground for the first time with the India team. When my father began teaching me, I was six years old. All I ever wanted was for him to witness me play for the Indian squad even just once in his lifetime. Following a 66-ball 62 against England in the third Test, Sarfaraz declared, “It’s the proudest moment of my life.”

On Thursday, as Sarfaraz’s lengthy wait for his Test debut came to an end, his father also attracted attention from the crowd by entering the Rajkot stadium donning a pullover jacket with the slogan “cricket is everyone’s game.” Sunil Gavaskar approached to say hello. Additionally, he was asked to participate in live commentary for a portion of the official broadcast.

On Thursday, Mark Wood—who can run over 140 mph—was in the batter’s seat when Sarfaraz came to bat. Given how harsh his father’s training methods had been, he wasn’t going to be intimidated. In Kurla, at their Taximen’s Colony building compound, his father has constructed a temporary net for practice that has an artificial turf surface.

He bowls to Sarfaraz and his other brother Moin using a unique synthetic ball that swings far more than a leather ball and can reach speeds of over 145 mph when thrown sidearm. “No wicket is challenging to bat on after we played on the artificial turf at home. Playing on it makes me feel really confident,” Sarfaraz remarked in a previous interview.

Sarfaraz has been hailed as Mumbai’s next great thing ever since he shattered Rizvi Springfield’s 12-year-old record of 439 points in the Harris Shield inter-school tournament. However, the ride wasn’t as easy as he had anticipated at the senior level.

In 2015, due to insufficient chances in Mumbai, he relocated to Uttar Pradesh. However, Khan returned to the Mumbai team four years later after the move didn’t work out. Sarfaraz put Mumbai under pressure in 2019 when he finally got an opportunity against a formidable Karnataka team due to the absence of a few key players. He scorched a scorching 71. Since then, he has not turned around, using his sheer volume of runs to smash open the selection door. 928 runs in the 2019–20 season, 982 in the 2021–22 season, and 556 in the 2022–23 season are statistics that speak for themselves.

“The whole process he had to go through to make a comeback to the Mumbai side when he returned from UP, he understood that he has to double and triple his efforts to make a mark,” Naushad told HT in a recent interview. He appears to have adapted to Test cricket like a fish to water based on his first day’s play.