NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) found itself in an awkward spot on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy 2025 season after mistakenly identifying Mumbai’s prominent batter, Sarfaraz Khan, as his younger brother, Musheer Khan.
Sarfaraz Khan and Musheer Khan (Image credit: Instagram)
The mix-up unfolded during Mumbai’s initial match against Jammu & Kashmir at the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium in Srinagar. The official scorecard on the BCCI website initially displayed Sarfaraz as having opened the innings and been dismissed for a duck by pacer Auqib Nabi. This erroneous record quickly gained traction among fans and various media outlets, sparking considerable online debate and speculation.
However, the reality was quite different. It was Musheer Khan, the younger brother, who was actually batting as one of Mumbai’s openers and was the one to be dismissed for zero. This scoring error caused widespread confusion, especially given Sarfaraz’s established role as a middle-order batsman, typically coming in at No. 4 or No. 5, and his current pursuit of a spot in the Indian Test squad.
Cricket enthusiasts expressed surprise upon seeing Sarfaraz’s name at the top of the batting order, with many speculating about an unexpected tactical experiment by the Mumbai team management. The situation, however, was later clarified when the official scorecard was corrected. But by then, the news of “Sarfaraz out for a duck” had already spread rapidly across social media platforms.
With no live broadcast of the match available, many initially believed the seasoned Mumbai batter had indeed suffered an early dismissal. The correction, when it finally arrived, came too late to prevent the online stir. Sarfaraz had already become a trending topic for all the wrong reasons, purely due to the glaring mistake by the BCCI’s scorers.
For Mumbai fans, it marked an unusual and confusing start to the domestic cricket season. For the BCCI, it served as a vivid reminder that despite significant advancements in digital record-keeping, the potential for human error to impact real-time sports reporting remains a significant challenge.