Rohit Sharma reveals how stupid the broadcasters were to credit Dhruv Jurel for Sarfaraz Khan's brilliance

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, who will not be captaining the Mumbai Indians for the first time in IPL since the 2013 season, appreciated the game awareness of Sarfaraz Khan in the 5th Test. While speaking in a recent interview, Rohit also claimed that he loved playing along with the young players of the team like Sarfaraz himself, Dhruv Jurel, and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

In that interview, Rohit Sharma spoke about a variety of topics like team India’s 4-1 victory in the 5-match Test series against England and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s successive double hundreds. Therein, he also shed light on Ravichandran Ashwin’s completion of 500 Test wickets and earning his 100th Test cap. Rohit also had words of appreciation for middle-order batsman Sarfaraz Khan for his brilliant and “spot-on” game awareness while fielding in the 1st innings of the 5th Test against England in Dharamshala.

Rohit Sharma says Sarfaraz Khan predicted Ollie Pope’s advancement from the crease

Rohit Sharma was extremely satisfied and content with the way Sarfaraz Khan predicted England’s number 3 batter Ollie Pope advancing from the crease. That prediction eventually led to the batter’s removal from the crease through a stump out – successfully carried out by wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel, who just like Sarfaraz, was playing his debut Test series for the Indian team.

Rohit explained that he had asked Sarfaraz Khan to stand in the short-leg position from where the latter predicted that Pope would step out in the next ball. And to everyone’s shock, the Englishman advanced and Jurel with his nifty glovework, did not do anything wrong to remove the bails and send Ollie Pope packing once again for a low score.

The Indian captain then heaped praise on all the youngsters who shined in the Anthony De Mello trophy Test series, claiming that he had a lot of fun playing with all of them. Rohit also hoped that he could play cricket with them for a long time as they are a special bunch of people.

“That particular stumping (in 5th Test) was just brilliant. Sarfaraz Khan was the one who predicted that, I had asked him to be there in short leg and he said that he (Pope) will step out of the crease now and asked Jurel to be ready for the stumping. And the next ball, he advanced, got stumped and gone. Brilliant. I had a lot of fun playing with these guys and I hope that we play a lot of Cricket together.” – Rohit Sharma said via Team RO podcast. 

 

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Sarfaraz Khan is still without a team in IPL 2024

While most of his national teammates will be busy playing the IPL 2024 edition from March 22nd onwards, Sarfaraz Khan might just be watching them over as he doesn’t have a contract in hand. Despite making his senior Test debut in the best way possible against England in the last 3 Tests in Rajkot, Ranchi, and Dharamshala, Sarfaraz will not be in this year’s IPL.

Last year, he was with the Delhi Capitals but he was released by the franchise heading into the mini-auction for the 2024 edition. The only way he can play in the richest T20 league is by entering a particular team as a replacement in case any player gets injured.