Rajkot (Gujarat): Veteran India batter Cheteshwar Pujara smashed the record 17th double century in First Class (FC) cricket against Jharkhand at his home ground - the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium here on Sunday.
Pujara has now become the fourth-joint player to score the most double-centuries in First-Class cricket. With this double century, he has now levelled with Herbert Sutcliffe's (17) and Mark Ramprakash's (17) achievements.
Legendary Sir Don Bradman (37) tops the list with 37 double centuries in FC cricket, followed by former England cricketers Wally Hammond (36) and Patsy Hendren (22). The 35-year-old also is second on the list for most double hundreds in the Ranji Trophy, the national domestic championship, and is only behind domestic stalwart Paras Dogra, who has nine double hundred to his credit.
Earlier in the day, the right-hand batter also surpassed former India batter VVS Laxman, who represented Hyderabad in the domestic circuit, becoming the fourth most run-scorer in First-Class cricket. He achieved this feat after scoring his 161th run of the marathon innings.
Legendary Sunil Gavaskar leads the most runs chart in First Class cricket among Indians with 25,834 runs, followed by cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar (25,396) and Rahul David (23,794).
Coming to the match, batting overnight on 157, Pujara went past 200 in the first session of the third day and remained unbeaten on 243 after lunch, when Saurashtra declared on 578 for 4, with a massive lead of 436.
With this exceptional performance, Pujara will be eyeing his comeback into the national squad for the five-Test series against England, starting from January 25 in Hyderabad. He last represented India in the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval in London. Saurashtra will play on their home turf against Haryana from January 12 to 15 and Pujara could feature in that game too.
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