He couldn’t find a place in Mumbai’s XI for the first three games of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Lucknow last November. And when Suryakumar Yadav finally told Sarfaraz Khan after the turn of the month he would play against Assam, the latter had a request.

“Let me bat at No. 3, please,” Sarfaraz is understood to have said — a spot Suryakumar himself preferred in Mumbai colours.