Sarfaraz Khan

He came into the limelight when he broke the Harris Shield record of Sachin Tendulkar, set in 1988, by scoring 439 off 421 balls.

Sarfaraz Naushad Khan (born 22 October 1997) is an Indian international cricketer who represents the Indian national cricket team in Test cricket.

He plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket and has also represented Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings, and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

It was his maiden Harris Shield game in 2009 when he was just 12 years old.

He was playing for his school, Rizvi Springfield.

The innings included 56 fours and 12 sixes.

He soon started playing for the Mumbai Under-19 team and his performance for them led to selection for the Indian Under-19 team.

As a 15-year-old in 2012, he was mentioned in the prestigious Wisden Cricketers' Almanack along with his younger brother Musheer Khan.

Khan has made his international debut during the 3rd Test between England and India at Rajkot on 15 February 2024.

He became the fourth Indian cricketer to score twin-fifties on test debut.

Sarfaraz's strike rate (94.2) is by far the highest among the 43 batters with two fifty-plus scores on debut in men's Tests (where balls-faced data is available).

Sarfaraz was born and brought up in the suburbs of Mumbai.

His family hails from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh.

He spent most of his childhood in Azad Maidan.

There Naushad Khan, his father and coach, nurtured young cricketers such as Iqbal Abdulla and Kamran Khan.

His coaching began at an early age when his father discovered his talent of timing the ball well.

In monsoon conditions it was difficult for him to reach the maidan (grounds) from his home in the suburbs, so a synthetic pitch was laid beside his house for practice.

"Not only does it save our time and energy but it has also helped him get used to bouncier wickets that he will have to deal with later on," his father commented.

He was unable to attend school for 4 years due to his cricket commitments, so a private tutor was employed for his maths and English classes.

In 2013, he scored a match-winning 66 ball 101 against South Africa Under 19s, which included 17 fours and a six.

Bharat Arun, the then head coach of the India Under 19 team, commented that: "'He is a gutsy player, who reads the situation well. He has shots all around the wicket and looks even better when playing straight. He uses his feet well and plays cheeky strokes too.'."

Sarfaraz represented India in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in 2014 and 2016.

He is an aggressive right-handed batter, a part-time spinner, and an occasional wicket-keeper.

Sarfaraz played for India in two Under-19 World Cups (2014 and 2016).

The 2014 Under-19 World Cup was played by 16 teams in a round robin format where India finished at the 5th position.

He scored 211 runs in six games at an average of 70.33; two innings were fifties, and he ended up a strike rate of 105.5.

Sarfaraz started his Ranji career with Mumbai when he played against Bengal in 2014.

He made his IPL debut for the franchise RCB in the year 2015 and was the youngest player, at only 17 years and 177 days old, to play an IPL match.

In the very next season, he was the only uncapped player to be retained by a franchise in the IPL.

Currently, he is the fourth-youngest player to play in the history of the IPL.

Following this performance, IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore bought him for 5 million for the 2015 season.

He started playing for Uttar Pradesh from the 2015–2016 season.

India finished as runners up in the 2016 Under 19 World Cup in Bangladesh.

In the tournament Sarfaraz finished as the second highest run scorer.

He scored 355 runs from six innings, with five scores of over 50, at an average of 71.

At the Under-19 level he has the record for most number of fifties in World Cups (7 fifties across two World Cups).

Sarfaraz Khan got to his 2nd successive hundred, this time an unbeaten 200-plus score in Round of Ranji Trophy at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium.

By September 2019 he had played 11 first-class matches and has scored 535 runs with the highest score of 155.

He had also played 12 list A matches and had scored 257 runs at a strike rate of 96.25.

In January 2020, in the 2019–20 Ranji Trophy match against Uttar Pradesh, Sarfaraz scored his maiden triple century in first-class cricket.