The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) made a mistake at the beginning of the Ranji Trophy season by confusing the two gifted brothers from Mumbai, Sarfaraz Khan and Musheer Khan. The error happened on Wednesday in Mumbai’s first match against Jammu and Kashmir at the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium, Srinagar. The error was notable and soon became a conversation starter among the Indian cricket community.

BCCI scorecard confusion goes viral

At the beginning of the game, the official BCCI scorecard incorrectly identified Sarfaraz Khan as the opener for Mumbai; it should have been his younger brother Musheer. When the third ball of the match saw Auqib Nabi, a pacer for the J&K team, bowl Sarfaraz for a duck, it appeared on the scoreboard that the wrong brother had opened the innings. This confused many fans because Sarfaraz has established himself as one of the middle-order batters and is even considered a candidate for No. 4 or No. 5 in the Test format for India. Seeing Sarfaraz's name appear on the scoreboard among the opening batters caused a social media frenzy and rampant confusion.

Once the BCCI realised the error in the scorecard, it was amended to say that Musheer was dismissed on the third ball, not Sarfaraz. However, this was after many of the first impressions of criticism regarding the opening pair (which are now irrelevant because it was corrected) had been passed around online. Fans and journalists still shared a laugh about the error.

When Sarfaraz eventually arrived at his position at No. 5, it took* him little time to establish himself at the crease, as he struck three boundaries in quick succession to steer the momentum in Mumbai's favour. Earlier, after cthe early dismissal of Musheer, Ayush Mhatre and skipper Ajinkya Rahane put together a decent 61-run partnership for the second wicket, before they fell in consecutive deliveries after scoring 28 and 27, respectively, leaving Mumbai needing to rebuild yet again.