Sarfaraz Khan shares the learnings he drew from Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers at the IPL

The last two editions of the Ranji Trophy saw a plethora of superb performances from players across India, but one talent that stood out was Sarfaraz Khan. The Mumbai batter has scored 556 runs in nine innings this season at an average of 92.66. He ended the 2022 edition on a high 982 runs in 9 innings, averaging a staggering 122.75.

In first-class cricket, Sarfaraz boasts a career average of 79.65 with 3505 runs, including 13 centuries and nine fifties.

Sarfaraz spent four seasons with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and shared a dressing room with veterans like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in between 2015 and 2018.

Recently, on the Aakashvani show for Jio Cinema, Sarfaraz was asked about his learnings from the time spent with Kohli in the IPL, to which he replied:

“Virat bhaiya’s commitment is of the next level. He watches a lot of matches. Whenever you see him, even if team parties are going on after the game, he watched a lot of matches there and used to see which bowler is doing what. So I learned a lot that how much he stays in the game.”

The right-handed batter was further asked whether Kohli used to watch his own matches or any other games, to which he responded:

“He used to watch whichever match was on, that what the bowler was doing. His entire attention was there, even if there was a lot of talk around, even while talking his eyes used to be focussed there only.”

The 25-year-old further recalled his conversation with De Villiers during the practice session.

“I saw him practice very few times. I asked him why he practices so less. He replied that he used to practice a lot when he was my age. I told him that I wanted to be like him, so he told me that he wasn’t even half as good as me when he was my age. So he just asked me to continue playing,” added Sarfaraz.

Sarfaraz was finally asked about reports suggesting that he might play the role of a wicket-keeper for Delhi Capitals (DC) in IPL 2023, to which he replied:

“I got to know from social media that I might have to keep. So I ordered keeping gloves and pads. I kept in the Syed Mushtaq Ali as there was the impact-player rule. So I was told that if I keep wickets, they can play an extra all-rounder. So I kept wickets and enjoyed a lot as well.”