All in the family for Khans

Sarfaraz Khan is using the cool off period to pile up runs in club cricket. The talented batsman, who will turn 21 later this month, emerged the top scorer in Kanga League ‘A’ Division that concluded on Sunday. His team Payyade Sports Club finished with eight points like four other teams: MIG Cricket Club Bandra, Shivaji Park Gymkhana, Payyade SC, Parkophene Cricketers and Cricket Club of India, and the winner in division ‘A’ will be decided after calculating the quotient.

Sarfaraz scored 83 in 78 balls against Dadar Union at Cricket Club of India on Sunday to finish the tournament with 284 runs in four innings at an average of 71 with strike rate of 94.04. His team took a first innings lead in a drawn game. Sarfaraz had earlier scored 109 against Sind Sports Club at Islam Gymkhana in this tournament.

The former Mumbai Ranji cricketer who later represented Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association in domestic cricket is serving the one-year cool off period after he decided to play again for Mumbai Cricket Association.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore player had missed IPL-10 owing to injury and missed six months of action before making comeback through Kanga League 2017 while playing for Young Mohmmedan CC. He emerged top scorer in ‘C’ Division.

It was the same club in which his father-cum-coach Naushad Khan and siblings Moeen and Musheer play. Sarfaraz scored well in club cricket and was retained by RCB for IPL-11 but he could not replicate the performance of his previous IPL seasons.

He missed last domestic season for UPCA due to injury and at the start of this year decided to play for Mumbai again but according to MCA rules he has to wait for a season to get back in reckoning for selection in Mumbai Ranji team. He isn’t letting time away from domestic cricket to affect his mindset.

“Sarfaraz is happy as he is scoring runs everywhere. He is also using his time to improve his batting and work more on his fitness. He is now looking forward to play in Police Shield,” Naushad said.

It is all in the family for Khans, as slow left arm bowler Naushad had emerged top wicket taker in ‘C’ division last year. Naushad repeated the same performance this season for Young Mohmeddan by taking highest scalps of 19 at an average of 10 in ‘B’ division. It included a four wicket haul on Sunday.

“I have been playing Kanga League for about 25 years and have been taking wickets on consistent basis. Earlier, there wasn’t statistics available online and you couldn’t figure out who is the highest wicket taker or run scorer. But from couple of years scoring system has gone hi-tech and everything is available on the Mumbai cricket website,” he said.

Kanga League played in monsoon on usually under prepared wickets is normally a boon for fast and medium pacers and Naushad is happy that he has done always well in the tournament.

“It is normally difficult to bowl on these wickets as a spinner and also for batsmen it isn’t easy to score runs. I try to bowl in the right areas and use my experience to snare wickets,” he added.