Sarfaraz Khan sings the most mellifluous of redemption songs at Chinnaswamy with fearless maiden Test century

October had already been a month of plenty for Sarfaraz Khan. It only got better on Saturday.

Having waited for a long time to lay his hands on the India cap, the 26-year-old has been on a mission since. A mission to prove that he hadn’t amassed ‘cheap’ First-Class runs. That he was not just a domestic giant. That he had the skills and, more importantly, the temperament to succeed at the highest level.

A mission that began in Rajkot in February reached its logical conclusion on day four of India’s first Test against New Zealand, at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium. This was the venue where he had several moments to forget as part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (as it was then known) set-up. Despite being one of three players retained ahead of the 2018 season – alongside skipper Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers – he was benched for the second half, ostensibly on fitness grounds. It was therefore fitting that he sung the most mellifluous redemption song at the same venue, with the first of what is certain to be many Test centuries.

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Sarfaraz had three half-centuries in his first five Test innings against England at the start of the year, including in both knocks on debut. But once Kohli and KL Rahul came back into contention at the start of India’s international home season last month, he was relegated to the bench for both Tests against Bangladesh, in Chennai and Kanpur.

Released from the Test squad at the end of the last month, he made the short drive from Kanpur to Lucknow to play for Mumbai in the Irani Cup game against Rest of India. For him, it wasn’t about trying to prove a point – he might say he had already done that – but to work his way into good form and touch, to keep himself match-ready and high on confidence as and when the Test recall came his way.

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Sarfaraz rose to the occasion with an unbeaten 222, an exceptional innings against a quality attack. His first hundred was for himself, the second for his younger brother Musheer, one of the stars of India’s Under-19 World Cup campaign in South Africa at the start of the year but who was forced to miss the Irani game – and the rest of this year’s action – following a car accident when he was on his way from Azamgarh to Lucknow to join his Mumbai teammates.

When Sarfaraz arrived in Bengaluru last week, he was under no illusion that he had done enough to break back into the XI. India wore a settled look, the middle order was packed and firing, there were no obvious fitness concerns. Until Shubman Gill developed a stiff neck two days before the start of the Test and was ruled out despite the fact that the game only started on the scheduled second day.

India filled the Gill-sized No 3 hole with Kohli, promoted Sarfaraz to No 4 on his comeback – he has hardly batted at that position even for Mumbai – and ensured that Rishabh Pant and Rahul remained untouched at Nos. 5 and 6 respectively. Many felt Rahul, until recently an opener in Tests, would have been better off batting at No 3, but if Sarfaraz was unhappy to bat out of position, he wasn’t letting it on. He wanted just to play for India again, anywhere.

His first-innings stay lasted just two minutes and three deliveries as he played what can at best be termed a horrible stroke, trying to drive Matt Henry on the up with India 10 for two in the 10th over. It took a special catch from Devon Conway to pack him off, but Sarfaraz would have realised that he had traversed the thin line between carefree and careless batting.

The chance to redeem himself came as India stared a mountain in the face. Trailing by 356, they had lopped 95 off the deficit when Rohit Sharma was second batter dismissed to usher his younger Mumbai colleague to the middle. This time, Sarfaraz embraced the challenge manfully, but not with timidity or circumspection as his watchwords.

His first stroke in anger was off his fifth delivery, against the left-arm spin of Ajaz Patel, who had got rid of both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit. A rasping sweep against the turn from outside off, head right over the ball, the wrists working to keep the red cherry down. As if to show that the brilliance of execution wasn’t a one-off, he pulled off an encore off the very next ball. Now he was purring, flowing beautifully and pulling Kohli, no less, along in his wake. The former captain himself turned it on a little, a wonderful tribute to the younger man’s infectious positivity, and even though India were still so far behind in the game, there was an imperceptible shift in the dynamics.

Bred on the competitive maidans of Mumbai where smarts must perforce complement skills, Sarfaraz’s awareness shone through when he used the dab over, through and behind the slip cordon with stunning regularity against the taller faster bowlers. Nearly half his first 100 runs came behind point through ramps, upper-cuts and impish glides. It was exhilarating for all but the 50-odd Kiwis on the ground, in the dressing room and scantily populating the stands. It was the ultimate display of the India of today, fearless, not averse to risk-taking, unwilling to be pushed to the backfoot.

First with Kohli and then with the irrepressible Rishabh Pant, all but a mirror image, Sarfaraz drove India forward, unfussed by the defensive fields Tom Latham started to lapse into and unaffected by a lengthy rain-break. He likes to create headaches, this Sarfaraz. For New Zealand, yes, but also for his own team management, who must not wonder what to do with this happy headache of how to fit him into the playing XI for the next Test in Pune when Gill returns to take his rightful No 3 slot.