"He is a short guy who always stays beside the ball": Chopra hails Sarfaraz

It is no secret that Sarfaraz Khan is a pro at finding runs via unorthodox methods and in areas rarely accessed by Indian Test batters The first Test in Bengaluru was an illustration of this aspect ndash where 96 of his 150 runs in the second innings came behind the wicketWith supple wrists solid bat swing and nimble footwork Sarfaraz brought out an array of ramp shots cuts and sweeps through the square of the wicket especially in the thirdman region to leave the viewers in awe at M Chinnaswamy Stadium ndash the venue where he first shot into limelight as a teenager in the Indian Premier League IPLAakash Chopra the former India opener on Wednesday dissected Sarfarazrsquos unique technique of getting big runs in the longer format ldquoThe way Sarfaraz plays is very different Usually we talk about going behind the ball and when you go behind the ball you tend to play more towards the frontrdquoldquoHe is a short guy who always stays beside the ball He doesnt move much on the back foot because he is short in height so the goodlength delivery becomes a shortpitched ball for him So that allows him to play the horizontal bat shots very easily and because he always stays beside the line he has that room to playrdquo said Chopra an expert with JioCinema ampamp Sports18 to IANS in a select virtual interaction on WednesdayHe also thinks bowling lineups are yet to figure out how to formulate plans for countering a heavy runmaking batter like Sarfaraz ldquoHe has got this unique technique in which he has a lot of confidence and is extremely successful Till now people have not understood him actuallyrdquoAlso ReadT20 World Cup 2022 Virat Kohlirsquos iconic shot of the century at MCG completes two yearsldquoIn firstclass cricket they might still understand that you can play with the third man in the beginning get the point fielder back and you dont have to bowl a short ball to try make him drive But till now at least New Zealand couldnt figure it out in the first Test match and by the time they did it was too laterdquoldquoSo it is a unique way of playing and thats what I think cricket keeps showing and throwing at us that whatever understanding you have about the game it can be changed any day People can be so successful with unique techniques they used to say after seeing Jasprit Bumrahs action that he would get injured every third day But thats the beauty of our sport I feel that you keep getting different surprises in regular intervalsrdquo added ChopraAfter the eightwicket defeat in Bengaluru India added offspin bowling allrounder Washington Sundar to their squad and whether he gets to play on a slowturning blacksoil pitch at Pune wasnrsquot given away by head coach Gautam Gambhir on the eve of the game Chopra found Washingtonrsquos inclusion despite the presence of Ravichandran Ashwin as an interesting decisionldquoThere are a lot of hypotheses around it and we are trying to think what could be their case I am not privy to any inside information either If Ashwin is playing do you really need two offspinners A leftarm spinner and a wrist spinner in Kuldeep If that is where India is going then maybe Siraj is not playingrdquoldquoOnce we reach Pune we will find if it is actually a rankturner that has been prepared If yes India does not need to actually play another fast bowler So all things are up in the air right now With one selection of course it has led to a lot of confusion for the people on the outsiderdquoldquoI am sure the team knows what they are doing and what kind of pitch has been dished out It is just that we are trying to figure out the combination new addition and stuff like that But honestly I have got no 10037 answer with regards to why Washy is there If he is there what exactly is going to happenrdquoWith India 10 behind in the series the Test at Pune is a chance for them to come back from behind Chopra stated this can happen provided India doesnrsquot repeat the mistakes committed with the bat and ball in their eightwicket defeat in BengaluruldquoIf we batted well enough and better in the first Test match we would have won the game there as well I was very confident and bullish about it Its okay if we collapse once but if we collapse twice in a single Test match especially after being 4083 in the second innings then its very difficult to bounce backrdquoldquoIn bowling we allowed a partnership between Tim Southee and Rachin Ravindra to prosper Unfortunately they all happened in the same match So India will try to rectify those things as if we do mantoman marking we know that India is a better siderdquoAll eyes will be on Ravindra who shone in Bengaluru with an excellent 134 and a sparkling 39 not out Chopra signed off by explaining the standout points for him about Ravindrarsquos batting in Tests especially in his takedown of the Indian spin bowling lineupldquoHe has batted beautifully I mean it wont be an exaggeration to say that he played spin like an Indian batter He didnt look like somebody who was born and brought up in New Zealand His hands are very very soft crafty and flexible apart from very precise foot movement His command over his defence the confidence that he has and then the shots that he possesses were impressiverdquoldquoTwo more points stood out one is that he has played spin like we Indians would and second was the maturity with which he actually played because if you look at his career it is a very young career A lot of people tend to struggle the first time when they visit India especially in the longer format But Rachin Ravindra looked absolutely at ease So kudos to him for the way he has actually battedrdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever