• Source:JND
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Saurashtra vs Jharkhand, Ranji Trophy 2023-24: Cheteshwar Pujara has kicked off his Ranji Trophy campaign in style as he smashed a double century for Saurashtra in their match against Jharkhand on Sunday, January 7.

Pujara, who is out of the Indian Test team after getting dropped, scored his 17th double ton in first-class cricket, making a statement as he eyes a return to the Indian team.

While the veteran batter hopes for a place in the Indian squad for the upcoming Test series against England at home, the double century can prove to be an extremely crucial statement of intent from him to the selectors.

 

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With his 17th double ton, Pujara became joint fourth in the list of most double centuries in first-class cricket along with Herbert Sutcliffe and Mark Ramprakash. Sir Donald Bradman tops the list with 37 double centuries with Wally Hammond of England in second position with 36.

Pujara started the day by overtaking VVS Laxman to aggregate the fourth-most First Class (FC) runs among Indians in the history of the game.

He scored the 161-run mark during Saurashtra's first innings during the third day's play to jump over Laxman's tally of 19730 runs in his FC career.

Sunil Gavaskar leads the list among Indians with 25834 runs followed by Sachin Tendulkar who finished his career with 25396 runs.

Pujara remained unbeaten on 243 before Saurashtra declared their first innings on 578 for the loss of just four wickets.

Notably, Pujara last played for India in the World Test Championship final in June 2023 where the Rohit Sharma-led side suffered a heavy defeat against Australia.

Pujara was dropped alongside another experienced batter Ajinkya Rahane as India looked to go ahead with fresh faces in the middle order in the longest format.

 

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The 35-year-old has been a key player for India in Tests since making his debut in 2010 and went on to become an irremovable force at no.3 position.

He has represented India in whites in 103 matches and has scored 7195 runs so far at an average of 43.61 with the help of 35 half-centuries and 19 hundreds.

The five-match Test series between India and England will begin on January 25 with the first Test scheduled to be played in Hyderabad.