Credits: BCCI/X
On November 6, Indian all-rounder Jalaj Saxena scripted history as he completed his 400 dismissals in the Ranji Trophy. Saxena entered the record books during the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2024 match between Kerala and Uttar Pradesh at the St. Xavier’s College Ground, Thumba, Thiruvananthapuram. Earlier in the game, Kerala skipper won the toss and invited the rivals to bat first.
The game saw Saxena picking up a total of five wickets as Uttar Pradesh were bowled out for 162. The all-rounder dismissed Aryan Juyal, Madhav Kaushik, Nitish Rana, Siddarth Yadav and Piyush Chawla. With Rana’s dismissal, Saxena completed his 400 dismissals in the tournament, and became the 13th bowler to achieve the record. Earlier, Saxena had also completed 6,000 runs in first-class cricket during Kerala’s game against Karnataka.
Who is Jalaj Saxena? Player to record history in Ranji Trophy 2024
As Jalaj recorded his 400th wicket in the ongoing tournament, he entered his name in the history books. Saxena became the first cricketer in the history of the Ranji Trophy to complete the double of 400 wickets and 6000 runs. Last year, he also became the fourth Indian cricketer to amass 9000 runs and 400 wickets across formats in domestic cricket. He joined the likes of Vinoo Mankad, Madan Lal and Parveez Rasool in the list.
Saxena made his debut for Ranji Trophy in the year 2005, and then played for Madhya Pradesh. In his maiden game, the bowler remained wicketless. So far, he has scored 6795 runs in the first-class matches, including 14 centuries and 194 runs has been his best score. Speaking of his bowling records, Saxena has scored 452 runs in 143 FC matches.
Saxena started playing for Kerala in the tournament after 2016. He has been playing domestic cricket for two decades, but he is yet to get a chance to debut with Team India. Saxena became the 13th player in the tournament to take 400 wickets. In the current season, Saxena has scored 101 runs from two matches with an average of 50.50 so far.
