When 17-Year-Old Sarfaraz Khan 'Impressed' Virat Kohli

image-lsn1bbs5Sarfaraz Khan playing upper cut during IPL 2015 [X.com]

Sarfaraz Khan has been a run-machine for Mumbai in domestic cricket. He has been the most consistent performer for his team scoring plethora of runs. The red-ball specialist once was an emering T20 batter who used to play fearlessly. Sarfaraz was with the Virat Kohli led Royal Challengers Bangalore from IPL 2015 to 2018. 

When young Sarfaraz Khan slammed Rajasthan Royal's bowling attack

Sarfaraz Khan was just 17 years old when he made his IPL debut for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2015. Back then, he was the yougest to debut in IPL. In the 29th match of IPL 2015, RCB was locking horns against the Rajasthan Royals at their den the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. 

Rajasthan won the toss and elected to field first. Sarfaraz came out to bat at number seven after the departure of Dinesh Karthik. Bangalore was 152-5 in the seventeeth over. The young prodigy Sarfaraz played a flamboyant knock of 45 runs off just 21 balls at a strike rate of 214.28. 

The Mumbai batter smashed six fours and a maximum to help RCB reach a total of 200. Most of the shots Sarfaraz played were behind the wicket. The innovation in his batting was appreciated by a lot of cricket experts. Virat Kohli was also in awe after watching such potential in the youngster. 

RCB showed a lot of interest in the youngster. He was the youngest and the only uncapped player to get retained by a team before the 2016 IPL auction. He was one of the three retentions of RCB alongside the stalwarts Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.