Bangalore: Prithvi Shaw recently recalled telling his teammates in the Mumbai dressing room to put their feet up when Sarfaraz Khan crossed fifty in the Irani Cup. Sarfaraz then scored 221*. It took him four Test matches to get there, but the Mumbai machine’s first 150 score in international cricket on Saturday added to his pile of 10 previous 150 scores or more in first-class cricket, three of which were over 200 with a three hundred.

Hailing from Mumbai, a city that continues to be a conveyor belt for delivering Indian batters, Sarfaraz is a worthy addition. But as you can tell from many of his eighteen fours and three sixes, he does it his way. International success for batsmen like Sarfaraz and Rishabh Pant – from a Delhi school that also produced the Virender Sehwag style – is testimony to the emergence of varied batting styles like never before. They have access to scoring areas in the field that would normally be avoided, especially in Test cricket.

Sarfaraz took the bait from the Kiwi bowlers on Saturday morning and continued with his slices and glides despite the presence of a flyslip. Or Pant, whose response to New Zealand taking the keeper to the pacers to stop him getting out, was to find another way to score – sending him for boundaries in the third man region. As the ramps and upper cuts played by Sarfaraz on Day 3 showed, access to the reverse V is as much a scoring option for these batters as it is in T20s.

“The late cuts between the wicketkeeper and first slip were always there. But scoring above the keeper, like Sarfaraz and Pant do, is so wonderful to see. As a spectator you get up,” said Sunil Gavaskar, who climbed the batting heights using a writing technique. “There have been orthodox cricketers. In Sarfaraz’s case, his unique style is refreshing. There is a certain brutality and innovation in his percussion.”

This approach has been compared by many to Pakistan great Javed Miandad. Gavaskar, who played a lot against Miandad, said the comparison was limited to game awareness and being alert to where the fielders were. “Even if he doesn’t hit boundaries, Sarfaraz tries to get singles and doubles by finding the gaps. That is similar to Miandad,” he said.

Sarfaraz and Pant’s scoring could be disruptive for the opposition, but they are fully aware of their strengths and limitations. William O’Rourke’s rising ball outside off stump that hit KL Rahul’s outside edge, Sarfaraz would probably have hit it over the keeper.

“I am used to playing on bouncy wickets in my backyard. So I enjoy facing tall bowlers. They usually bowl too short for me. That’s why I played in the third man region,” Sarfaraz explained.

Is facing a six-foot international fast bowler the same as backyard cricket? That is also a measure of confidence in the new generation of players.

“If they had bowled full, I would have scored immediately. I was just freaking out. I didn’t think where the points would come from,” said Sarfaraz, when asked if he had not scored enough in the V.

If Sarfaraz and Pant could wreak havoc for over three hours in a 177-run stand that promised to turn the Test around, it was an effective blow to the extreme. Pant would greet Rachin Ravindra’s left-arm delivery with a reverse move against spin. Sarfaraz would paddle Ajaz Patel almost half-blind and still cross the fine leg boundary as intended. Even the bowler smiled admiringly.

Sarfaraz’s runs and late Indian success for Suryakumar Yadav may warrant a redefinition of Mumbai’s batting philosophy, described as ‘khadoos’.

“Mumbai’s batting style was about being effective and not giving it away. That’s what ‘khadoos’ was. The way Sarfaraz has batted, he has adopted that,” Gavaskar said. “At the same time, while Mumbai batters were previously more orthodox and technical in nature, Sarfaraz has shown that runs can be scored in any way and still be attractive and fun to watch.”

“I think, Gill and Kohli at 3-4 and Rishabh-Sarfaraz at 5-6, the bowlers of the world will be scratching their heads and going bald very soon. You have the top four getting runs and having to follow Pant and Sarfaraz, who are making fun of the bowlers with little glides, ramps and reverse sweeps. As a spectator, I am really looking forward to more of these partnerships,” said Gavaskar.