When Yashasvi Jaiswal was batting on 199, Sarfaraz Khan urged his partner to stay calm and not just casually take off for the run.
Sarfaraz Khan couldn’t have asked for a better start to his Test career. Actually wait; he could have. The 26-year-old, whose long journey of struggle and hard work culminated into an India cap, struck half-centuries in both innings as India ran roughshod over England to register a record win by 434 runs and level take a 2-1 lead, could have made his first India appearance even more special had it not been for that dreaded run out in the first innings.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan forged a 172-run partnership. (PTI)
Just to refresh your memory, Sarfaraz was batting on 62 and Jadeja on 99, when the India all-rounder dished out a ‘wrong call’ leading to Sarfaraz’s run-out at the non-striker end. It was intense that Rohit Sharma threw his India cap in anger, and Jadeja had to issue an apology on Instagram to shed some guilt. And while Sarfaraz admitted that such mix-ups can happen to anyone at any time, it seems as if the run-out was fresh on his mind when he was batting with Yashasvi Jaiswal during their partnership of 172 runs.
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Here’s why. When Jaiswal was taking strike on 199, approaching the second double century of his Test career, Sarfaraz shouted at him not to take off without communicating. “Tu bhaagna mat pehle (Don’t just take off for the run),” he said. Sarfaraz, then batting on 50, responded to Jaiswal’s call as the opener drove the ball to complete a single that gave him his second double in as many Tests. And the visual of Sarfaraz celebrating it with Jaiswal, highlighting the road these two have been together on was icing on the cake.
Watch the video below:
Unlike first innings Sarfaraz batted at No. 5 ahead of Jadeja, and with his second fifty in the match, joined an elite list of players comprising Dilawar Hussain, Sunil Gavaskar and Shreyas Iyer to have scored twin half-centuries on Test debut. Together, they took India to 430/4 before the innings was declared ahead of the tea break, setting England a target of 557.
With just a little over a session to go, and given how England have batted in the last five innings, the result was set to be determined on the final day. But in the next two-odd hours, the England batting capitulated dramatically and they were skittled for 122 – their sixth-lowest total against India – with Jadeja completing his 13th five-wicket-haul in Tests.
