Meet the trio with the most Ranji Trophy double centuries

Scoring a double hundred requires the amalgamation of a multitude of factors like skill, perseverance, temperament, patience, and perhaps a little bit of luck.

It is often an accurate marker of a player's class and pedigree, especially in the longer formats, as is evident in the fact that Sir Donald Bradman, widely regarded as one of the best players to play the game, scored as many as 37 first-class double hundreds, 12 of them being in Test matches, which are both unsurpassed by anyone else.

Indian cricket's premier domestic competition, the Ranji Trophy, has had an elite list of players like Sachin Tendulkar and Cheteshwar Pujara who have scored double centuries in the competition before going on to score double hundreds in Tests. In this respect, the 2019-20 edition of the Ranji Trophy, which saw Saurashtra become the newest team to win the 86-year-old competition, churned out batting heroes old and new aplenty.

The season's top-scorer Rahul Dalal (2) of Arunachal led a group of more than ten players to have scored double hundreds in the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy, which includes Sarfaraz Khan who became the first player since WV Raman in 1989 to follow a Ranji Trophy triple century with a double.

Veterans on the domestic scene, Chesteshwar Pujara and Abhinav Mukund also shone for their respective sides this Ranji season with daddy hundreds of their own. On that note, let us meet the trio with the most Ranji Trophy double centuries.

#T2. Cheteshwar Pujara (7)

Cheteshwar Pujara.

One of the mainstays of the Indian Test team, Cheteshwar Pujara scored 248 for eventual champions Saurashtra against former winners Karnataka in a group-stage game.

It was an eventful double hundred from Pujara on multiple counts. The 32-year-old brought up his 7th Ranji Trophy double hundred, to go level with second-placed Ajay Sharma (7) in the competition's all-time list.

Pujara, who already has the most first-class double hundreds by an Indian player, moved past Kumar Sangakkara for most first-class doubles by an Asian player. In the process, the no. 3 in the Indian Test team became one of 18 players to score 13 double hundreds.

During the course of his latest first-class double, Pujara became only the 9th player to register 50 or more first-class hundreds.

#T2. Ajay Sharma (7)

Ajay Sharma.

Ajay Sharma, who played a lone Test match and 31 One-Day Internationals for India, held the record for most Ranji Trophy double hundreds till 2015.

Having scored 10120 first-class runs at an impressive average of 67.47, only two other players (Don Bradman @ 95.14 and Vijay Merchant @ 71.22) have scored as many runs in first-class cricket at a higher average than Sharma. Sharma's Ranji Trophy average of just over 80 is only shaded by Merchant's 98.35 among major batsmen in the domestic circuit.

Making his first-class debut for Delhi in 1984-85, Sharma scored all his Ranji Trophy double hundreds for the capital team, bagging his highest first-class score of 259 not out in the 1991-92 edition of the competition.

#1. Paras Dogra (9)

Paras Dogra.

.Making his Ranji Trophy debut for Himachal Pradesh in 2001-02, Paras Dogra became the first player to score 8 double centuries in the competition when he scored 253 for Puducherry against Sikkim in a 2018-19.

Dogra, who is one of 5 players to have aggregated 900 or more runs in the recently-concluded 2019-20 Ranji Trophy, bagged his record-extending 9th double hundred in the competition by scoring exactly 200 runs against Mizoram in a group-stage game.

Follow Sportskeeda for more Cricket news.