India Test batter Sarfaraz Khan, who made his IPL comeback after a gap of two years, has revealed that he worked extremely hard to improve his strike rate this season. Sarfaraz, 28, scored 161 runs in eight IPL-19 games for Chennai Super Kings at a strike rate of 169.47. In the 2023 IPL, he had scored 53 runs in four games at a strike rate of just 85.48.

“When I was not in the IPL for those two years, I kept thinking why I couldn’t make it and started practising harder on aspects that I felt needed improvement. My main target was to improve my strike rate, because I believe I missed out on those two years due to [low] strike rate and some fitness issues. So, I worked hard and got good results in my fielding, fitness and batting,” Sarfaraz told mid-day on the sidelines of the jersey launch of T20 Mumbai League (TML) team Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburbs at  Wankhede on Friday.