I Felt I Could Change Course of the Game: Sarfaraz Khan After His Triple-Ton

Sarfaraz Khan, who recently scored his maiden triple ton and helped Mumbai take the first-innings lead against Uttar Pradesh, said that he could change the course of the game single-handedly. Despite suffering from fever before two nights of the game, he scored an unbeaten 301, which propelled Mumbai to put up a first-innings score of 625/8 declared and take three points on the last day of the game in the ongoing Elite Group B Ranji Trophy.

“I wasn’t going to come out to bat. I wasn’t well for the last two-three days. But I felt that I was the kind of player who could change the game if I remained in the middle. So I came out and played for the team,” Sarfaraz Khan said.

His triple century is only the third such knock by a first-class batsman batting at number 6 in the first-class cricket. Even, this is only the second after Karun Nair did at number 6 in Ranji Trophy history so far. Before him, it was Mumbai’s veteran batsman Rohit Sharma who smashed a triple-century.

“I didn’t think I would be able to go all the way. When I got to 250, I felt I should declare (retire), but the team backed me a lot,” said the 22-year-old, who returned to Mumbai for the domestic season after playing in the Uttar Pradesh team for three seasons.

According to Sarfaraz Khan, his innings got slow after getting to 200.

“After I got to 200, I slowed down. I did not hit a boundary for an hour until tea after I went past 200, my aim was that we had to go past 625,” he said.“I knew that Shams (Mulani) is a player who gets fours easily.”

Meanwhile, Mumbai captain Aditya Tare also praised his batting, citing Sarfaraz has worked on his batting.

“He (Sarfaraz) always had talent. He works really hard on his batting. He is always practising and prepares himself well. He is a cricketer who improves,” Tare said.“Sarfaraz can bat at number 5 or 6 and win matches, he has that quality.”