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Kerala all-rounder Jalaj Saxena has made history by becoming the first player to achieve the rare double of 6000 runs and 400 wickets in the Ranji Trophy. Saxena reached the milestone during his team’s Elite Group C fourth-round match against Uttar Pradesh at St Xavier’s College Ground on Wednesday.
The 37-year-old, who passed the 6000-run mark in his previous match in Kolkata, achieved his 400th wicket when he dismissed Uttar Pradesh’s Nitish Rana with a sharp off-spin delivery that led to a stumping. Saxena is now the 13th bowler in Ranji Trophy history to take 400 wickets and has also recorded 29 five-wicket hauls in the competition.
Saxena began his First-Class career in 2005 with Madhya Pradesh, where he took 159 wickets and scored 4041 runs over 11 years. In the 2016-17 season, he moved to Kerala and has since become the second-highest wicket-taker for the team in First-Class cricket, trailing only KN Ananthapadmanabhan.
Last season, Saxena joined an elite group of players by becoming just the fourth to score 9000 runs and take 600 wickets across all formats in Indian domestic cricket, joining Vinoo Mankad, Madan Lal, and Parvez Rasool. His achievements in the Ranji Trophy place him in a class with some of India’s cricketing legends, including Vijay Hazare, Madan Lal, and Sunil Joshi.
