Why Wasim Jaffer is the greatest first-class cricketer in Indian history
The veteran, Wasim Jaffer, does not seem to stop and keeps on playing year after year. The 40-year-old has accomplished a lot in his career but now he is also helping the young talents to improve their game, so we can say his role is still quite important for Indian cricket.
Jaffer, born and brought up in Mumbai, started his domestic career for Mumbai in 1996. After playing 19 years for the Mumbai Ranji Team, the opener switched to Vidarbha in 2015 and helped them to the Ranji Trophy title in the 2017-18 season.
In the ongoing Ranji Trophy, he became the first batsman to score 11,000 runs in Ranji Trophy and also went past the record for the most number of matches.
In the 23 years of his first-class cricket career, Jaffer has made many records, including a triple century in second innings. Jaffer is the fifth in the list for the most number of centuries in first-class Cricket.
The man, who seems to get younger with every match, has 19,079 runs in 251 first-class matches with a mind-boggling average of above 50. He also has 57 centuries and 88 half-centuries with the highest score of 314 not out.
Talking about his International career, Jaffer scored his first century in the 2006 England tour of India, where he scored exact 100 runs in the second innings of the first Test match at Nagpur. The opener then went on to score a double-hundred in the next series against the Windies which cemented his place at the top of the order. As a result, in the same year itself, he was given the central contract.
The opener has scored 1944 runs with the help of 5 centuries, including two double-centuries, and 11 half-centuries, at an average of 34.1. Jaffer did the best with the limited chances he got at the highest level.
Jaffer is more known for his heroics at the first-class level. He is the best first-class cricketer in the history of Indian cricket and his record speaks for itself.
Now with the experience of over two decades, the veteran is looking to nurture the young talents at the domestic level to help improve the standard of the upcoming Indian batsmen. Indian cricket is fortunate to still have him playing at the first-class level. One cannot guess how important a role this legend is playing now for the betterment of Indian cricket.
Last but not the least, his team, Vidarbha, is in the semis so we wish him luck and may he keep on batting like this and make more new records.