Sarfaraz 439,Armaan 498,Prithvi Shaw 546: The Mumbai conveyor belt rolls on

On Wednesday,it was Prithvi Shaw’s turn to soak in the limelight. The 14-year-old had broken past new barriers in scoring an incredible 546 in the Harris Shield U-16 schools tournament at Azad Maidan.

Though slightly overwhelmed by the media hoopla,the youngster wasn’t shy or nervous posing for photographs. Shaw,after all,has seen his former teammates Armaan Jaffer and Sarfaraz Khan deal with similar mayhem after completing similarly outlandish batting feats in their school’s colours.

Sarfaraz began this run of mammoth run-scoring in 2009,when he scored 439 to go go past R Nagdev’s record score of 427*,scored in the 1963-64 edition of the tournament. Jaffer went past Sarfaraz in 2013,when he made 473. This wasn’t unexpected; three years before that,he’d rewritten the record for the highest score in all of Mumbai schools cricket when he’d scored 498 in the U-14 Giles Shield.

On Wednesday,Shaw overtook all of them. Having been overshadowed by his two prolific seniors over the last two years,this was Shaw’s moment in the sun. And just as Jaffer did with Sarfaraz’s landmarks,Shaw has taken it to the next level.

Raising the bar

According to coach Pathak,the performance bar has always been rising and his players have been trying to compete with each other. This,he says,is what has led to their record-breaking feats.

“If you see in our team over the past three to four years,we have had these three boys — Shaw,Jaffer and Sarfaraz. Each one of them is gifted but if Shaw scored 100 then one of the other boys would end up scoring 200 or more than that. And the bar is raised,” he says.

Behind the scenes,each of the three has his own story of trials and tribulations. There are no off-days and there is no time for their books. If Shaw and his father had to take trains during the wee hours of the morning from far-flung Virar,Jaffer and Sarfaraz have had to deal with unstable financial backgrounds and the burden of fulfilling their fathers’ dreams.

Naushad Khan and Kalim Jaffer are doting fathers and coaches who don’t mind utilising ingenious methods to train their kids. The senior Shaw,meanwhile,is not too far away when his son is playing either. He keeps a constant vigil,and was at Azad Maidan to watch his son’s epic innings.

Having set the tone in schools cricket,Sarfaraz has now begun making a mark at the U-19 level for both Mumbai and India. He recently struck a century for Mumbai against Uttar Pradesh and he’s already been promoted to the U-25 team and to the probables list of the Ranji team.

Jaffer’s not too far away but he’s been out of action of late owing to a toe injury.

Sudhir Naik,Mumbai’s current selection committee chief and a close follower of junior cricket,says he admires the trio.

“These three players have been prolific over the past couple of years. But they are different in their own right. I will rate Armaan higher than the rest because of his temperament. It’s very tough to find young players who show so much patience when they bat. Whereas Sarfaraz is a strokeplayer who uses his power very well,Prithvi crafts his innings nicely,” Naik said recently.

What connects the three though is an insatiable hunger for runs,at least in the junior circuit. While Jaffer and Sarfaraz have graduated to the next age-group level seamlessly,it remains to be seen whether Shaw can do the same now that he’s done what all Rizvi batsmen touted for stardom do: demolish a batting record.