India’s assistant coach, Abhishek Nayar, has expressed confidence in Sarfaraz Khan’s ability to translate his strong domestic cricket performance to the international level. On Saturday, the Mumbai batter scored his maiden Test century against New Zealand during the fourth day of play.
Starting the day with an overnight score of 70, Sarfaraz, along with Rishabh Pant, helped India recover from a first-innings total of 46—their lowest-ever home score in Test cricket.The partnership between Sarfaraz and Pant added 113 runs, with Pant reaching his 12th Test fifty before rain halted the first session. India was at 344/3 in 71 overs, trailing New Zealand by just 12 runs when play stopped.
Watch: Nayar lauds Sarfaraz Khan’s heroics
Nayar commented, “We associate Sarfaraz Khan with hundreds, double hundreds, and triple hundreds. So I’m hoping at the end of the day we see the domestic Sarfaraz Khan being the beast in international cricket and get that triple hundred.”
On Friday, Sarfaraz had also built a significant 136-run partnership with Virat Kohli, who scored 70 before Sarfaraz was dismissed by Glenn Phillips on the last ball of the day.
Reflecting on the team’s resilience, Nayar stated, “Sometimes when you are pushed against the wall, you expect Indians to come and fight back and that’s the character we have in the dressing room. That innate nature, that fight when you’re up against it, is very natural to us.”
Nayar outlined the team’s strategy moving forward: “If we can get past the first 15-20 overs without losing a wicket, then I think we can look at getting anywhere around 300-350 by the end of the day and then sort of challenging the New Zealanders in the last day. The ideal situation is to put 250 runs on board and put New Zealand in.”
India’s second assistant coach, Ryan ten Doeschate, praised the team’s efforts to stage a comeback after their first-innings collapse.
“A pretty solid day. We fought really hard, and we were really good up until that last ball. It’s probably a big moment in the Test, but what it means is we’ve given ourselves a chance to get back into the game,” Ryan said. “No matter what situation they’re presented with, we’re trying to find solutions and I think you saw that today. With a massive deficit like that, it would have been easy to throw the towel in. So we’re not far off and we certainly don’t feel like we’re out of the game. I think the guys have shown a never-say-die attitude and that’s how we go about it.”
