Ranji Trophy | Twitter in awe as Pujara offers stern reminder to national selectors with flawless unbeaten 243

Saurashtra raced towards a victory against Jharkhand to open their Ranji Trophy campaign in Rajkot on Sunday after securing a mammoth first-innings lead of 424 runs, largely on the back of an indomitable batting effort by Cheteshwar Pujara. The 35-year-old took the field in the first session on Saturday with his team within seven runs of equalling Jharkhand's total of 142 and crusaded his way to unbridled 157 by Stumps. He continued his knock with the same elegance on Day 3 of the encounter, eventually reaching the 200-run milestone with aplomb and ending up unbeaten on 243 when skipper Jaydev Unadkat declared the innings for the defending champions.

Pujara's double century was the 17th in his 18-year first-class career, the fourth most by a player in cricket history, and the tally of eight in the Ranji Trophy only second-best to Paras Dogra's nine. The veteran's unperturbed showing indicated he was well on-course for a first triple ton in a decade as well, having reached the mark thrice in his storied career.

Pujara was dropped from the Indian side after another poor showing in the World Test Championship Final at The Oval in June, following which the Men in Blue have played two Tests each in the Caribbean and South Africa respectively, where Shubman Gill featured in the number three spot. The top-order maestro had only managed one ton on the international stage since the Boxing Day Test against Australia in 2018 which forced the selectors to look beyond Pujara who has 103 Test caps to his name. However, Pujara would hope his latest effort would put him back in contention for the upcoming five-match Test series against England beginning January 25 given the national team's struggles with constructing long innings, at least as far as Twitterati was concerned.  

What an innings!

The monk

Superb

Happiness

What a start!

Yup

Twin tons

Absolutely correct

Historic