India broke many records in the recently-concluded five-match Test series against England at home. The Rohit Sharma-led side put up a dominating show and clinched the series with 4-1 scoreline. The win became more special as the hosts side consisted of many youngsters, who gave exemplary performances and became household names. One such player was batter Sarfaraz Khan, who made his debut in the third Test and completed the series with 200 runs in his tally. He also smashed three half-centuries and played fearless cricket against England.
Recently, Sarfaraz opened up about playing under the captaincy of Rohit. The 26-year-old batter jokingly compared Rohit’s style of captaincy to a scene from famous Bollywood movie, “Lagaan”.
“Rohit bhai ke sath khel ke bhi mujhe bahut maza aaya. Main bahut time se cricket khel raha tha, 9-10 saal maine IPL bhi khela. Aur domestic bhi khel raha hoon. Mujhe bahut maza aaya Rohit bahi ke sath khel ke. Aisa laga ki… matlab jab unko dekhta hoon toh ekdum pyaar sa aata hai ki itne ache bande hai vo. Sabko saath mein lekar chalte hai. Jab vo team mein bolte hai kuch, apne vo movie dekhi hogi Lagaan. Aamir Khan kaise team banata hai. Toh unko dekh ke mujhe Lagaan movie ka he yaad aata hai. (I enjoyed a lot while playing under the captaincy of Rohit Bhai. I have been playing for a long time now. I played in the IPL for 9-10 years and also played domestic cricket. So, it was a wonderful experience of playing under Rohit Bhai. Whenever I see him, I just admire his greatness. They takes everyone together as a team. Whenever he speaks something during the team meeting, it reminds me of Aamir Khan’s movie, Lagaan.),” Sarfaraz told AajTak.
“Daant-te itna nahi hai, bass samjhate hai. Har ek ke bolne ka tarike alag hota hai. Mujhe to nahi lagta ki daant-te hai kyuki Mumbai ki language thodi aisi he rehti hai. Tu kar ke baat karte hai pr iska matlab ye nahi ki vo daant-te hai. Ye hum Mumbai walo ki style hai. Hum waise he baat karte hai. Acha team ko saath mein lekar chalte hai. Bonding achi hai. Sikhate hai. Junior senior jaisa feel nahi aaya mujhe mere debut ke time pe. (He doesn’t scold us much. he only makes up understand and everyone has a different way of talking. I never felt that he ever scolded us. It’s just the way of talking in Mumbai. We talk like that only. His bonding with the team players is very good. He never makes us feel that he is senior to us.),” he added.
Sarfaraz was handed the Test cap by former India captain Anil Kumble before the third Test in Rajkot, where he scored two half-tons to emulate the legendary Sunil Gavaskar.
“From my childhood, I have been hearing stories about the importance of Test cricket. My father kept telling me the importance of the longest format of the game. It’s not like there was no pressure, I felt pressure when I was playing my maiden series,” Sarfaraz said.
“My Instagram followers have grown to 1.5 million after my Test debut. For the last four years, it was 600-700k followers on Instagram. Suddenly, after playing for India, it has become 1.5 million. It’s good,” he added.
(With PTI Inputs)
Topics mentioned in this article
