AB de Villiers told me that he wasn't half as good as me when he was my age: Sarfaraz Khan

Sarfaraz Khan has long been seen as an up-and-coming player, playing the breakout season for IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2015, Khan overnight became a household name. However, his form dwindled past 2015 and it seemed as if Khan's name would disappear quickly. Nothing of the sort happened as Sarfaraz made a tremendous comeback in the domestic circuit and is now in consideration to get selected in the Test squad.

Recently on the Aakashvani show on JioCinema, Sarfaraz Khan revealed the takeaways he got from the game's greats like Virat Kohli and Ab De Villiers. About De Villiers, Khan said, "It is better not to talk about him. I saw him practice very few times. I asked him why he practices so less. He replied that he used to practice a lot when he was my age. I told him that I wanted to be like him, so he told me that he wasn't even half as good as me when he was my age. So he just asked me to continue playing."

Sarfaraz was asked about reports suggesting that he might be keeping wickets for the Delhi Capitals in IPL 2023, to which he replied:

"I got to know from social media that I might have to keep. So I ordered keeping gloves and pads. I kept in the Syed Mushtaq Ali as there was the impact-player rule. So I was told that if I keep wickets, they can play an extra all-rounder. So I kept wickets and enjoyed a lot as well."

Sarfaraz Khan receives praise from Virat Kohli

Sarfaraz Khan also revealed what he learnt from Virat Kohli. "Virat bhaiya's commitment is of the next level. He watches a lot of matches. Whenever you see him, even if team parties are going on after the game, he watched a lot of matches there and used to see which bowler is doing what. So I learned a lot that how much he stays in the game."

"He used to watch whichever match was on, that what the bowler was doing. His entire attention was there, even if there was a lot of talk around, even while talking his eyes used to be focussed there only."