Sarfaraz Khan was at his best on day two of the Irani Cup 2024, recording a first in the 65-year history of the prestigious tournament. He did what legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma could not do during their illustrious careers. Sarfaraz became the first batter to smash a double-century for Mumbai in the Irani Cup history.
In Mumbai’s 30th Irani Cup appearance, by far the most by any Ranji Trophy team, Sarfaraz was on fire as he led the charge at Lucknow’s BRSABV Ekana Stadium. He took 253 deliveries to bring up his double century, and in the process also set Mumbai’s highest individual score in the Irani Cup.
Sarfaraz overtook Ramnath Parkar, who scored 194* in 1972, as well as captain Ajinkya Rahane, who had scored 191 in 2010 in a losing cause against a stacked ROI, which included Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Yuvraj Singh, who hammered a rapid double century in that match.
While former Mumbai players Ravi Shastri and Pravin Amre have struck double centuries in the Irani Cup, they did so representing ROI. Their dual double-hundreds came in the same match, against Bengal in 1990 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Overall, Sarfaraz batter also became the eleventh double centurion in the Irani Cup and only the fourth who wasn’t representing ROI. The most recent before Sarfaraz was Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored 213 against Madhya Pradesh in 2023. The highest-ever score in the Irani Cup belongs to Wasim Jaffer, who put a bow on Vidarbha’s excellent performance in 2018 with a massive 286-run knock.
Sarfaraz ended the day on 221*, entering the top five highest innings in the Irani Cup, behind only Jaffer, Murali Vijay, Amre, and Surinder Amarnath.
Is Sarfaraz set for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy?
Sarfaraz joined up with Mumbai in Lucknow after not being chosen in either of India’s two Tests versus Bangladesh, and continues to hammer home a case to be a part of the Indian Test setup for years to come. He made his debut against England in the series earlier this year, playing three Tests and scoring three half-centuries, but lost his place to the returns of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant.
The middle-order batter has been on fire in domestic red-ball matches in the recent past, and will receive a massive boost to his numbers as well as his stock with such a performance on a key stage.
Sarfaraz was given able support by captain Rahane, who was dismissed on 97 after a solid innings, as well as Tanush Kotian, who provided a strong innings of 64 at number eight. He ended the day at 221*, with Mumbai on 536/9, and in a very strong position going forward in this match as they look to lift a 15th Irani Cup title.
