Sarfaraz Khan Father: Naushad Khan’s Full Story

A Search for ‘Sarfaraz Khan father’ opens on a Mumbai-bound train that has roughly the same numbers of passengers, vendors and sound-levels, as it journeys on its way. One of those vendors for several years was Naushad Ahmed Khan, an ex-cricketer from Azamgarh who had moved his family to the city of Dreams, just so his son could learn the game at its best possible level. He sold cucumber.

He sold track-pants. Every penny earned went into the game, for his son. Sarfaraz Khan’s father is Naushad Ahmed Khan, an individual born on July 16, 1971 in Mumbai, hails from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. He is a former cricketer, played Mumbai-based domestic level cricket; he is a cricket coach, imparting knowledge at Azad Maidan, he is the architect of the rise of one of the most watched under-privileged stories in the Indian cricket. In this profile, we detail who is, his actual sacrifice, betrayal and how he coaches, the controversy around his son’s inclusion and what does the jersey number ‘97’ denote for Sarfaraz every time he walks out to bat.

Sarfaraz Khan Father: Naushad Khan Quick Facts

DETAIL	INFORMATION
Full name	Naushad Ahmed Khan
Date of birth	16 July 1971
Birthplace	Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India
Place of family origin	Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh
Batting style	Left-handed batsman
Bowling style	Slow left-arm orthodox
Played cricket at	Mumbai domestic level; Azad Maidan circuit; continued playing into his 40s
Nickname at Azad Maidan	Macho, earned for his combative playing style
Role in Sarfaraz’s career	Father, head coach, manager, and primary motivator throughout Sarfaraz’s career
Sons	Sarfaraz Khan (India Test cricketer) and Musheer Khan (Mumbai domestic cricketer)
Wife	Tabussam Khan
Connection to Rohit Sharma	Rohit Sharma played local matches alongside Naushad Khan in Mumbai
Financial sacrifices	Sold cucumbers, toffees, and track pants on Mumbai local trains to fund cricket
Other known sacrifice	Built a synthetic pitch outside the family home for Sarfaraz to practice on
Famous jersey tribute	Sarfaraz wears jersey numbers 9 and 7, which spell “Nau-Saat” in Hindi, honouring Naushad’s name
Famous quote on debut day	“Raat ko waqt chahiye guzarne ke liye, lekin Suraj meri marzi se nahi nikalne wala” (It takes time for the night to pass, but the sun will not rise according to my wishes)

Where Naushad Khan Came From: Azamgarh to Azad Maidan

Naushad Ahmed Khan hails from Azamgarh, a city in eastern UP with a long history of people migrating to Mumbai for livelihoods. It was precisely for cricket, though, that he relocated his family to the costly and fiercely competitive environs of Mumbai, widely considered one of the most challenging domestic cricket ecosystems in the world and a factory that has churned out an endless stream of Team India players across many generations; for the sake of his sons, his decision to move there was strategic. Naushad himself developed a reputation at Azad Maidan, the great open park in the heart of Mumbai which has provided practice space for generations of city cricketers, of a cricketer who was a left-hand batting and slow left-hand orthodox bowling left-arm spinner for Mumbai in domestic cricket and who kept playing until well into his 40s, earning himself the moniker “Macho” in the community there. He wasn’t a career state cricketer who arrived at one level briefly and disappeared; he stayed in the game, on the grounds, on the pitches, over many decades.

His work as a coach at Azad Maidan included developing students besides his sons. One of the proudest and perhaps one of the saddest chapters in his coaching life was of the young spinner, Iqbal Abdulla, whom he identified in squalid conditions in Azamgarh and coached right from his basics to the India U-19 team that won the 2008 World Cup captained by Virat Kohli. Abdulla went on to represent the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL and even won a Rising Star award, before, according to Naushad, he said: “I had the ability so I played”. That act of disloyalty, the exit of an alumnus without any regard to the effort invested, has left such a mark on Naushad that his outlook regarding the fidelity of those beyond his family is colored by this.

The Sacrifices: What Naushad Khan Actually Did

Naushad Khan’s sacrifices and struggle for Sarfaraz’s cricket journey is a Mumbai cricketer origin story as famous as any. It is not beautified or sensationalized here, it does not need to be. The fact that you’re reading this shows that Naushad Khan did a lot for Sarfaraz in Mumbai’s gritty and often harsh environment.

He sold cucumbers, toffees and track pants on Mumbai local trains: Naushad plied the very trains his young son traveled on from place to place on, taking them across the length and breadth of Mumbai in the quest for the income necessary for his son’s training, gear, food and tournament participation fees. It wasn’t something he did casually, but this was how he paid Sarfaraz’s dues day in, day out.

He constructed a synthetic cricket ground in his own courtyard in the family home: Getting practice pitches was very tricky back then, especially in such dense residential surroundings, but Naushad made one in his own compound. Sarfaraz practiced at this pitch in the backyard on many occasions; after all, what else would they have been there for? The flexibility he’d get from it-practicing whatever time they needed.

He would pay rival teams to play matches against them: Yes, Sarfaraz has spoken about his dad making a plan so that he’d get batting time against oppositions by simply paying their cricketers to come out and play. The sheer will to get Sarfaraz batting experience, regardless of the expense! Most parents of young aspiring cricketers in Mumbai can only imagine what this cost might be.

If cricket didn’t pan out, we could go back to selling track pants, Sarfaraz has mentioned: Back in those days, when a career in professional cricket wasn’t looking bright, and they were going through dire times, his father once said to him: “Don’t worry, if everything else fails, we’ll go back to selling track pants.” It was said as a light reassurance, to show Sarfaraz the level of poverty they had braved as a unit.

The Jersey Number: 9 and 7 Means Naushad

97 was the number Sarfaraz wore in the 2014 U-19 World Cup instead of his regular number 87. When asked about it, the 16-year-old described: “In Hindi, nine is nau and seven is saat, so 97 rhymes with my dad’s name, Naushad.” The sentiment expressed in the idea – the innovation of a teenager at cricket’s international youth level – became one of the more often referenced elements when describing father-son relations. Naushad himself described it plainly: “He wears my name on his back, 9 and 7, which is Nau-Saat, my name, Naushad.”

Here is evidence of a father-son relationship being articulated as opposed to being implicitly acknowledged and kept apart from the public square, made intentionally transparent by a son at an age most young teenagers go to great lengths to create distance between themselves and their fathers. For Sarfaraz, wearing his dad’s name via number on his back was never an embarrassment; it was the thing to do.

The Debut Day: “The Sun Will Not Rise According to My Wishes”

Naushad Khan was in the commentary box of Rajkot’s Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium when Sarfaraz Khan was presented his Test cap by Anil Kumble before the third Test between India and England, starting on February 15, 2024. The wait had been sufficiently long for one of the commentators, Aakash Chopra, to ask him, “Had you waited too long?” He replied, as most of us may have felt by then, “Raat ko waqt chahiye guzarne ke liye, lekin Suraj meri marzi se nahi nikalne wala.” It takes time for the night to pass but the sun is not going to rise according to my wishes.

Poetic, as it is, without being showy; resigned, as it is, without being resentful; it conveys a certain type of defiance that is expressed by those of us who feel we have spent sufficient years watching the wheels of a certain system turn without justly rewarding those it should be nurturing and know that our displeasure or regret will not, in any way, accelerate or alter the cycle. Sarfaraz played 62 off 66 in the first innings in which he was run out. His maiden Test century against New Zealand at Bengaluru in October 2024 was followed, just two days later, by the birth of his son, Zahoor, and Naushad marked his elevation to grandfatherhood by posting a picture on Instagram with the infant in his arms beside Sarfaraz – the beginning of the fourth generation in the family’s four-generation cricketing narrative in one frame.

What Kind of Coach Naushad Khan Is: The Approach

Consistently in interviews with Sarfaraz, the reports of observers at Azad Maidan and his own words, Naushad Khan’s coaching was defined by two pillars – technical discipline and mental hardness. He ran a stern, not a soft, developmental environment. He demanded effort, drilled skills to perfection and demanded far more of his own sons.

His observation regarding the intensity of his methodology encapsulates it: “It may seem over the top from a distance, but sometimes the additional push is required to not let him distract from the main goal.”

His reasoning was crystal-clear and, above all, the motivation was to keep Sarfaraz on track in a city, and a sport, teeming with distractions. Indian cricket, and particularly Mumbai cricket, produces an oversupply of talent and there are, by definition, large numbers who fall away not due to lack of skills, but due to a lack of sustained focus. Naushad made no bones of the fact he’d witnessed first-hand how gifted cricketers have been undone by losing their work ethic while seeking distraction. After Iqbal Abdulla he became doubly cautious about his protegs losing their focus on success arriving.

Playing opposing teams to practice also highlighted his broader strategy, not just of imparting skills, but also managing logistics, creating opportunities and acting as the professional the father of an Indian cricketer sometimes must be – part coach, part agent, part manager. And he did it all without a formal structure, funding or institutional assistance.

The Controversy: When Naushad Khan’s Name Appeared in the Selection Debate

During a much-talked-about stretch of exclusion for Sarfaraz from India sides despite relentless run-scoring on the domestic circuit in June 2023, a BCCI source quoted in reports cited the names of both Sarfaraz and Naushad when explaining selection non-availability on the grounds of behavior and discipline. “Some things said, some gestures made, and some incidents have been taken note of. A bit more disciplined approach would only do him a world of good. Hopefully, Sarfaraz, his father, and coach Naushad Khan will work on those aspects.”

Having Naushad Khan cited by name along with his son shifted the selection discussion to an interpretation of intent that implicated the father in the stated issues – an argument often reinforced by a combination of Sarfaraz’s social media comments of veiled frustration and a celebrated Ranji Trophy milestone against Delhi that was interpreted by some as a taunt directed towards a selector in attendance.

The validity of this BCCI source’s position was immediately contested, however. A counter-source told PTI that the Ranji Trophy celebration had been directed to the dressing room and to coach Amol Muzumdar, rather than to selectors, and that former Madhya Pradesh coach Chandrakant Pandit had, reportedly, mentioned that Sarfaraz had been looked upon as a son, “who was never disrespectful towards anyone or anybody in terms of his attitude”. Those close to Sarfaraz rejected outright the suggestion that there had been ‘disciplinary issues’ at play.

Whatever view one takes of the relative accounts, what the episode clearly illustrates is how crucial Naushad Khan’s influence was to Sarfaraz’s journey that, during a period of selectorial silence, the cricket ecosystem pointed towards him too, naming him along with his son in a specific reason for non-selection. A father and personal coach of a cricketer of Sarfaraz’s stature are typically not considered in that light within India’s selection narratives, which, frankly, suggests just how entwined these two became – so entwined that the very factors that pushed Sarfaraz toward success also invite unwanted attention and scrutiny.

The Honest Assessment: Naushad Khan’s Pros and Cons as a Cricket Father

The Positives: What Naushad Khan Did Right

What he delivered with cricket as his goal is the only starting point that any credible analysis of the sarfaraz khan father naushad could ever consider. This is the cricketing résumé of Sarfaraz Khan – he averages 65.19 in first class cricket across 56 games, with 14 hundreds and 13 fifties. He is a Test player for India. His younger brother, Musheer Khan, has already established himself in the Mumbai first-class setup as he trod a familiar path.

It should never be taken for granted that either would make it through. In Indian cricket, where political obstacles, hundreds of talented aspirants and enormous pressure make passage into the India team a torturous ordeal, many, equally skilled cricketers never make it. The two Naushad sons navigated the entire route. The financial compromises that he made when the only money that could possibly have gone towards the well-being of any child in a conventional Indian context was diverted, from selling track trousers at train stations to constructing a pitch in the garden, to luring teams to train there by paying opposition to make up numbers, are not what you expect of a shrewd financial investment. They are the responses of a man who possessed a vision such that every personal sacrifice seemed entirely appropriate. Cricket lore is full of stories of parental sacrifices. Naushad’s contribution to this literary genre is not a matter of generalization, rather of specific actions and, therefore, specific outcomes that have been separately observed and verified.

The first class average that Naushad inculcated into Sarfaraz through his coaching represents a consistent flow of runs that rank among the highest by any Indian batsman in domestic cricket in the last 10 years. We may have our opinions on his coaching methods, and he acknowledges that it was not an easy job on his account; however, technical development is, as can be witnessed by the figures, indisputable.

The Complications: Where the Story Gets More Complex

The whole BCCI insider 2023 controversy, whatever its veracity, left a question that can’t be completely brushed aside – can a father’s very intimate, intense and extended proximity to a son’s professional cricket journey, be also responsible for his becoming a sticking point for the bodies that have the final say on selection? When Naushad’s name popped up in a BCCI statement on disciplinary matters, it isn’t a common sight for most fathers of cricketers. That the statement was specific enough to name him, pointed towards the fact that the cricket establishment probably felt that they were dealing with a dynamic they couldn’t manage because it revolved around him.

Also, there’s a real question around the psychological implications of the relentless pressure Naushad exerted through Sarfaraz’s formative years as a cricketer. That a father’s intense, relentless energy, who sells track pants in trains, who reportedly even paid opposing teams to show up, could create pressure for his budding cricketers is hard to contest. Sarfaraz himself has spoken of his father’s involvement in all the interviews and never once characterized the pressure he felt, negatively.

The gesture of making a replica jersey in his dad’s favourite number does point to real affection, rather than anger or resentment towards the pressure. But that pattern of intense parent-coaching relationships does sometimes spill over and cause difficulties in the cricketing world and across the globe, and 2023 seems to have been Sarfaraz’s nearest taste of this phenomenon in his own journey.

Further evidence for this pattern and perhaps the sheer quantum of Naushad’s emotional investment in cricket, in the aspects of gratitude and loyalty, could be extracted from the Iqbal Abdulla saga – of which Naushad has spoken about with considerable grief. A father’s hurt over perceived ingratitude by a protégé can be channeled into his efforts with his own sons; that’s a very human story but it’s also a pointer that Naushad’s coaching journey hasn’t all been smooth sailing.

Musheer Khan: The Second Son

But Sarfaraz Khan is not the only Naushad Khan success story. His brother Musheer Khan, born February 27, 2005, eight years younger, has followed much of the same pathway of Mumbai age-group cricket before making his way on to the first-class domestic scene. He is a right-handed all-rounder and already has played the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai using the same father-coach recipe that turned Sarfaraz into the phenomenon he is.

Naushad training two of his sons through the same, exacting developmental pipeline and both reaching professional first-class cricket helps to support the claim that what we have witnessed is not just about one extremely gifted athlete, but about a replicable method of coaching. Two sons, two first-class cricketers. Coached by the one man, from the one house, with the same type of synthetic pitch in the front garden.

Where Naushad Khan and Sarfaraz Stand in 2026: Current Status

So as we begin 2026, Sarfaraz Khan’s international future is very much alive and divisive. A batting average of 65.19 from 56 first class matches. A Test cap. His maiden century. Fleeting, effervescent cameos at the global stage. His own career had hit another one of the predictable cycles of doubt. October 2025. Sarfaraz Khan left out of an India A side on tour in South Africa and, in one swoop, the question was back. Why did this sort of batting production continue not to earn a better shot at the Indian test setup.

Some of the system’s staunchest critics had, as usual, seen confirmation that the politics were being chosen over the performance. The BCCI and coaching hierarchy refused to offer an on the record comment on this occasion. He is still under the tutelage of his mentor and closest confidant in sport, Naushad Khan, the coach for whom this relationship – sparked in a Mumbai local train with an exchange of cucumbers and toffees – has not just produced an Indian test batsman, but in January, a grandson, Zahoor. Naushad had broadcast both happy events in his distinctive style. The sun, just as it did on the commentator’s box roof in Rajkot, does get up. Eventually.

The Man Behind the Number on the Back

Naushad Khan hawked track pants on local trains so that his son could train on the synthetic wicket he laid in front of his house in one of the costliest cities on earth. He compensated rival sides for matches to get Sarfaraz batting. He tutored Iqbal Abdulla, a spinner, through an India Under-19 World Cup, watched him disappear without a single note of gratitude. He captained a team called Macho at Azad Maidan and batted until his mid-40s.

He addressed a microphone in the commentary box when his son was presented with his Test cap by Anil Kumble and declared the sun would no longer rise and set according to his dictates. He made #97 signify something more than a score. And he made this story worth rooting for, as far back as it goes, in 2026, with a grandson named Zahoor, another son on the cusp of domestic stardom in the Ranji system and his eldest, finally, capped in the India XI.

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