Jalaj Saxena creates history, becomes first uncapped Indian to achieve big all-round feat

Saxena entered the record books during the Duleep Trophy match between India Red and India Blue, which ended without a result

If you are a follower of Indian domestic cricket then you must be familiar with Jalaj Saxena’s name. He has been the recipient of the prestigious Lala Amarnath award for the best all-rounder of Ranji Trophy for the last 4 seasons and yet a national call-up has eluded him. That, however, hasn’t stopped Jalaj Saxena from giving his all. On Monday, Jalaj Saxena created history by becoming the first uncapped Indian to score 6000 first-class runs and pick up 300 wickets.

Jalaj Saxena in action (Shankar-Mourya-HT-photo)

Saxena entered the record books during the Duleep Trophy match between India Red and India Blue, which ended without a result.

Saxena became the 19th Indian achieve the feat after CK Nayudu, Lala Amarnath, Vijay Hazare, Vinu Mankad, C Sarwate, Polly Umrigar, Babu Nadkarni, Chandu Borde, ML Jaisimha, Saleem Durani, S Venkataraghavan, Syed Abid Ali, Madan Lal, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Manoj Prabhakar, Sairaj Bahutule and Sanjay Bangar. But he is the only uncapped cricketer in the list.

So far, the right-arm off-spinner, who also bats right handed, has featured in 113 first-class games, amassing 6,044 runs and 305 wickets.

Saxena returned with figures of 3 for 57 and 4 for 105 for India Blue.

“I knew I completed 300 wickets but I did not know that I am the only uncapped player among the legends. I feel honoured to learn that I am in the same list with Polly Umrigar, Lala Amarnath, Kapil Dev etc,” he was quoted as saying by the Sportstar.