Sarfaraz Khan hits another Ranji century following Australia snub, celebrates with signature slap of the thigh celebration

Sarfaraz Khan: (Image Source: Twitter)

Indian cricketer Sarfaraz Khan continues his rich vein of form in domestic cricket. On Tuesday, he hit his third century of the season against Delhi on the first day of the Test match in the Ranji Trophy. His ton came days after being ignored in the Indian team squad for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series 2023.

Notably, this was Sarfaraz Khan’s third century in the ongoing season for Mumbai. Khan helped the team recover from a difficult situation at 110/5 and reached the ton on the final session of the day’s play.

Luckily, he was given lifelines on two occasions by the opposition and Sarfaraz made full use of that. Delhi wicket-keeper batter Anuj Rawat missed a stump chance right before the tea and it proved costly for his team.

After reaching his ton, Sarfaraz celebrated the feat with his signature slap of the thigh celebration. His ton also received a special ovation from Mumbai coach Amol Mazumdar, who doffed his hat to show his respect for Sarfaraz. The video of the same has been doing the rounds on the internet. Here's a look at that:

The Mumbai batter boasts of outstanding numbers in the past few seasons in domestic cricket. He had crossed the 900-run mark in consecutive seasons. In the last edition, he was the highest run-getter, having managed to score 982 runs in 6 matches.

However, despite that, he was overlooked for the ongoing Test series against Australia. The likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan was opted ahead of Sarfaraz Khan.

Following his snub, Sarfaraz Khan shared a post on Twitter, which showed his outstanding numbers in domestic cricket. In an interaction with Times of India, the Mumbai batter said,

"When the team was announced and my name wasn't there, I was sad the whole day, when we travelled from Guwahati to Delhi, I was feeling very lonely. I cried too," he was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

"I called my dad to Delhi. He spoke to me, I practised with him, and then felt better."
India are set to play next against New Zealand in a three-match Test series, starting from 18th January 2022.