Father Naushad Khan reacts to Sarfaraz Khan's dream Ranji Trophy run

Sarfaraz Khan's dream run in the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2021-22 has put him on the brink of an Indian call-up. Sarfaraz has scored 937 runs at an incredible average of 133.85, including four centuries and two half-centuries. These numbers can go up with one innings remaining in the Ranji Final for Mumbai.

Sarfaraz has often credited the support and backing from his father, his coach, for his form off-late. 

In an interview with Rediff.com, Sarfaraz's father, Naushad Khan, spoke at length about how his son's batting has evolved since returning to Mumbai.

This happens to be Sarfaraz's second stint with the Mumbai Ranji side after leaving his home side to play for the Uttar Pradesh team in the 2015-16 season.

Naushad spoke about Sarfaraz's stubborn nature that has contributed to his success with the bat in the past two Ranji Trophy seasons.

"I would say he is a ziddi (stubborn) player. He is a good student of the game too. He has matured so much, he works so hard on his game now.

If you see some years back, he had this habit of throwing his wicket away easily, but now he is determined to make most of every opportunity.

"He constantly talks to me about his batting, he wants to improve every day. He sends me videos daily to analyse his batting, because he wants to improve and take his game to the next level," he said.

His father explained in depth how Sarfaraz went from city to city to play cricket which helped him gain valuable experience against all types of bowling.

"In the off-season (the monsoon season) in Mumbai, we used to travel to different places like Agra, where he used to practice his batting and play a match next day and after a couple of days we moved to Mathura, Faridabad, Lucknow, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Jaipur and so on."

"These matches at different venues helped him practice against different types of bowlers on different type of pitches in different type of conditions."

"That has taken the fear out of him when he plays first class matches because he doesn't give a thought to what type of wickets he will get or conditions or bowlers he will face."

Sarfaraz, who plays for the Delhi Capitals franchise in the IPL, did not get much opportunity to showcase his talent in the last edition.

Naushad also revealed what advice he gave Sarfaraz when the right-hander was finding it difficult to play in the nets ahead of Mumbai's game against Karnataka.

"I told him that it is not a problem if you get out to a good delivery, but be patient at the wicket and play your normal game. Don't keep the previous match in your mind when you go to bat because sometimes that can lead to overconfidence."

"Every match is a new game, so take your time to get settled and get the measure of the wicket and the bowlers," he stated.