Wasim Jaffer's crowning moment of glory

Wasim Jaffer became the highest run scorer in Ranji Trophy history today while playing against the touring Punjab team. He went past fellow Mumbaikar and former team mate Amol Muzumdar (8237 runs), who was incidentally giving commentary while Jaffer created history. Jaffer fittingly got it at his home ground, the Wankhede stadium. Some of the interesting facts and highlights from his long first class career …

• Jaffer made his Ranji debut in 1996 and has made all his Ranji runs for Mumbai.
• He has also led Mumbai to two Ranji titles, and won the trophy on five other occasions as a player.
• Jaffer has played 100 Ranji matches
• He is employed by the Indian Oil Corporation
• His father was a driver at BEST, Mumbai
• Jaffer is the youngest of 4 brothers.
• He is a big advocate of ‘maidan’ cricket, Mumbai cricket’s USP
• Expectedly, Sachin Tendulkar is his role model.
• Jaffer has played 31 Tests with 5 100s and 11 50s
• His highest Test score is 212 and he has 1944 Test runs in all, at an average of 34 odd.
• He rates Sanjay Manjrekar as one of the better captains he has played under.
• The cover drive is his favorite shot
• L.Balaji is rated very highly by Jaffer among the bowlers that he has faced.

To round off, the compliment that Jaffer treasures the most is the one that Ganguly made earlier this year when he was on air during India’s tour of England. This is what Jaffer says about it,

During the England tour earlier this year, Sourav Ganguly said on air: the three best opening batsmen that India have at the moment are: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer. It is a very high compliment for me coming from someone who played for India for so long and was the captain.

Here’s wishing Jaffer many more runs, though one must admit that his chances of making a comeback to the Test team are almost nil. Still, he will continue to be the king at Ranji level and he will make do with that.