Sarfaraz Khan lives his (and his Abbu's) dream to briefly conquer the world

It must suck to get run out in Test cricket.

It must suck even more to get run out on your debut.

So, imagine being in the shoes of Sarfaraz Khan right now. 

You finally get an opportunity to play Test cricket, that too due to a multitude of injuries, after being ignored by the selectors for years despite you being the standout batter in domestic cricket in the country. 

You walk in to bat with a pretty nice platform set (237/4) and, luckily, you are batting on a rather flat deck against a tired attack that has toiled hard for 60-ish overs. 

You put the ‘early nerves’ to bed and you’re off the blocks quickly. And soon, you start batting like a dream. 

You’re executing every shot you attempt to perfection, and you’re also simultaneously manipulating the field masterfully. 

A hundred is right there for the taking.

But then, out of nowhere, completely against the run of play, you get run out due to your selflessness. You get run out because you badly wanted to see your batting partner, at the other end, get to his century.

Life is cruel, isn’t it?

That’s the bad part of being Sarfaraz Khan right now.

But, at the same time, it would be AMAZING to be Sarfaraz Khan right now.

Because imagine, you’ve not only fulfilled your own lifelong dream, but also the lifelong dream of your father. You’ve finally got to the destination that you’ve been trying to reach for 20+ years, and, at the same time, you’ve managed to make your father and your entire family proud.

You’ve represented your country at the highest level, and you’ve just dazzled in front of millions. You’ve made some world-class bowlers briefly look like amateurs.

Most importantly, you’ve shattered every wrong notion about the Ranji Trophy and its standards, and you’ve shown that excellence at the domestic level can, in fact, be translated into the international level. Thanks to doing the same, you’ve just turned into a beacon of hope for thousands of aspiring cricketers, who will now believe that they, too, can work their way up from scratch and they, too, can make it to the top by taking the ‘conventional’ route. 

It must suck to get run-out in Test cricket, and it must suck even more to get run-out on your Test debut, but all in all, it’s a pretty damn good time to be Sarfaraz Khan. 

For you’re a champ who’s briefly conquered the world, and you’ve just had the whole world cheering for you in your pursuit of doing so.