By the time one of the strong members of Indian cricket, Sarfaraz Khan, got out during the opening game of the Duleep Trophy 2024-25 against India A at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, the India B side was struggling with 67/3 towards the start of the second session in the first day. Musheer Khan, the younger brother of Sarfaraz, however, received some vital advice from his elder brother.
The condition of the batting side went downhill as they struggled to get going and could manage only 94 runs by the time they lost R Sai Kishore as their seventh wicket of the innings. Musheer Khan was standing at one end but, couldn’t do much, watching his teammates going back to the dressing room one after another.
Akash Deep was bowling beautifully in that period post lunch, and for a moment, it felt like the Shubman Gill-led side would easily destroy the India A team and get into batting mode. It didn’t happen certainly, as Musheer Khan left the field at the end of the first day with an unbeaten 105-run knock in a partnership of over a hundred with Navdeep Saini.
Musheer Khan reveals the advice of brother Sarfaraz in the middle
The way Akash Deep, who showed some terrific bowling during their home Test series at home against England towards the start of the year, was bowling, it was needed someone to come out with a different plan during the game, and Musheer Khan decided to walk into the middle of the track to counter the pitch.
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The young batter looked back at the words of his brother Sarfaraz Khan, who urged the former to play his natural game, and if that meant walking in the middle of the surface, so be it.
“My brother and I have the same game. I try to follow whatever he does. In the middle, he only asked me to follow my technique. Usne bola agar tere ko lagta aage bad sakta hai, to aage bad kar khel (If you feel like moving forward, go ahead and do it).” Musheer Khan expressed at the end of the day’s play.
The 19-year-old has started his first-class career in an incredible way with 529 runs in the first ten innings at an average of 58.77, celebrating one half-century and two centuries with the best score of an unbeaten 203-run knock.
The moment the Kurla-born took his helmet off to soak the applause of his teammates and his brother towards the end of the day when he reached to the three-figure mark, he looked at how the words of Sarfaraz pushed him into success.
“I wanted to play as many balls as possible without thinking too much about runs. I wanted to bat the whole day, and I was taking it session by session.” Musheer Khan remarked. “The ball was swinging and cutting when I came to bat. So, I was trying to play the ball as close to my body as possible and was looking to avoid those risky shots. I knew runs would eventually come.”
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It wasn’t only him who rescued India B from the struggle, as Navdeep Saini also gave his all in the 108-run unbeaten stand at the end of the first day’s play.
“When wickets were falling at the other end, I told myself to play intelligently and look for a partnership. Then Saini bhai gave me a lot of confidence, saying he would play whether it is two balls or six balls in an over, and just keep faith in him.” Musheer Khan concluded.
The start in his FC career has been phenomenal, but he would like to extend the purple patch and break the door of Indian cricket shortly.