I worked hard on fitness when I was not in IPL: Sarfaraz Khan
India and Chennai Super Kings batter Sarfaraz Khan, on Friday, said he worked on his fitness and strike rate in white-ball cricket during the two years he missed playing in the Indian Premier League.
The right-handed Mumbai batter was not picked by any side in the IPL editions of 2024 and 2025, before he made a comeback with Chennai Super Kings this year.
“The biggest challenge for me in IPL was to make a comeback and to play with a good strike rate,” Sarfaraz told reporters during jersey launch of Mumbai Western Suburbs Aakash Tigers here ahead of the fourth edition of the T20 Mumbai League.
“There was some issue with the strike rate in between, and also due to fitness, I was not there in the IPL for two years. The biggest challenge for me was making a comeback,” he said. “I needed to improve my strike rate and fitness. That’s one reason I was out of the IPL for two years. I worked hard on fitness, fielding, and batting, and I got good results. I’ll continue to improve,” he added.
Talking about his performance this year, he said, “You can never be fully satisfied in cricket. You have to wake up each day, work hard and learn something new every day. “I spent 2 months there (at CSK) and learnt a lot. Everyone knows that Dhoni’s (room) doors are never closed, so whenever needed, we used to discuss cricket.”
“One thing I learnt is to keep things simple,” Sarfaraz added.
The 28-year-old said he wants to keep working hard on his game and he is someone who cannot sit idle.
“I enjoy working hard. I don’t like sitting idle. I felt I needed to improve my white-ball game, so I worked on it and also focused on my fitness. The results have been positive.
“As long as I am playing cricket, I want to keep learning. I want to improve in red-ball cricket, white-ball cricket… Every day is a new challenge,” he added.
Sarfaraz, like the rest in the cricket fraternity, is in awe of the 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
“What can I even say to him to do better? He has made life tough for the others, whenever he takes the field he deals only in sixes,” Sarfaraz quipped.
“He had made his Ranji Trophy debut against us (versus Mumbai in Patna, 2024-2025 season) and I felt he had the game to play red-ball cricket like he plays white ball.
“His practice and mindset are different, and it is not that others cannot do what he is doing. But he has worked hard on it and if you work hard on something, you can be successful in it.”
Sarfaraz said a player’s job is only to keep working hard.
“Whether it’s the IPL or any other tournament, your job is to perform. Selectors will do their job; players have to focus on theirs,” he said when asked if IPL performances matter a lot for selectors in picking national teams.
