No Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma In Competition; Cheteshwar Pujara Shatters Huge Record In Ranji Trophy

Cheteshwar Pujara played a marathon knock of 234 runs off 383 balls in the league stage match of the Ranji Trophy against Chhattisgarh. The senior batsman shattered many records during his stay on the crease and etched his name in history books. Pujara now holds the record for scoring the joint-most double-centuries in the Ranji Trophy.The former India stand-in vice-captain now has 9 double-centuries. He sits at the top spot with Paras Dogra. Abhinav Mukund and Ajay Sharma share the second spot. Both former India batsmen hit seven double-centuries. Indian legends Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are nowhere in the competition in this list.Overall, Pujara has scored 18 double-centuries in first-class cricket. The list is topped by Don Bradman, who breached the 200-run mark 37 times. Pujara sits at the third spot in the elite list of Indians with the most centuries in first-class cricket. He has 66 tons in red-ball cricket. Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar share the top spot with 81 centuries. They are followed by Rahul Dravid, who hit 68 tons.Pujara is the fourth highest-run scorer in Indian first-class cricket. He has scored 21115 runs so far. Sunil Gavaskar (25834), Sachin Tendulkar (25396) and Rahul Dravid (23784) sit ahead of him, respectively.Pujara has sent a timely reminder to the selectors before the all-important Border-Gavaskar Trophy and it remains to be seen if he is considered for the series.Pujara, who remained a regular in the Test team between 2012 to 2022, was dropped after the South Africa tour. He made his return for the England tour and retained his spot for another year.Pujara was out of contention after he got dropped again and wasn't recalled during the home series against England even when the team needed experienced middle-order batsmen. Apart from him, Team India has also moved on from Ajinkya Rahane.