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Ajinkya Rahane-led Mumbai concluded their Ranjit Trophy 2024 group stage campaign with a huge win over Assam on Saturday. The experienced pacer Shardul Thakur took ten wickets across two innings and Shivam Dube recorded an unbeaten hundred in the first innings.

After spending more than five months on the sidelines due to injury, the young Mumbai opener made a sensational return to competitive cricket by smashing a 159 off 185 against Chhattisgarh in the Ranji Trophy 2024 match on Friday, February 9.

Shubman Gill's form batting at number three has the point of discussion now after his twin failures in the first Test against England in Hyderabad. Meanwhile, former India head coach has come up with a massive statement related to Gill linking his fortune to Cheteshwar Pujara's in Test cricket.

With Virat Kohli pulling out of the first two Tests against England due to personal reasons, the Indian team will be without either of the trio of former captain, ex-vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane or Cheteshwar Pujara in a red-ball game for the country for the first time in 12 years.

Virat Kohli's withdrawal from the Test squad for the first two games against England has thrown a spanner in the works for the Indian team as the former captain was the best batter for the side in South Africa series. The BCCI is going to name a replacement soon as Kohli tends to his family.

With the upcoming five-match Test series against England in sight, Indian red-ball veterans Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteswhar Pujara, and in-form Shreyas Iyer are in focus in the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2024 round two fixtures starting on Friday.

Cheteshwar Pujara scored an unbeaten double-hundred for Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy clash against Jharkhand. Pujara has hit his 17th double ton in first-class cricket. His knock comes ahead of India's Test squad announcement for the England series.

Jaydev Unadkat-led Saurashtra kicked off their title defence by bowling out Jharkhand on just 142 runs in the Ranji Trophy 2024 opener in Rajkot and then Cheteshwar Pujara's 157* off 238 balls helped them score a total of 406/4 on Day 2.

The out-of-favour India batter has not been picked for India's two-match Test tour of South Africa 2023-24. He has been sitting on the sidelines since India's heartbreaking loss to Australia in the final of the World Test Championship 2023.

India will play two Tests after the six white-ball matches on South Africa tour starting from December 26. The Rohit Sharma-led side last played red-ball cricket in July this year on the West Indies tour when they had won the two-match series 1-0.

Ranji Trophy 2023 champions Saurashtra led by Jaydev Unadkat will be up against Rest of India led by Hanuma Vihari in the Irani Cup clash. Rest of India features some of the out-of-favour players including Mayank Agarwal and Vihari himself and a good game could be their ticket to South Africa.

Sussex have been hit with their fourth fixed penalty during the game against Leicestershire. Captain Cheteshwar Pujara has been suspended for a match and the team has been docked 12 points. Tom Haines, Jack Carson and Ari Karvelas will not be part of the next game.

India batter Cheteshwar Pujara believes playing for the team's cause matters much more than playing for one's own spot in the team.

"I hope to add to the laurels that my dear friend and team-mate, Cheteshwar, has been adding aplenty while representing Sussex," Jaydev said.

Out of favour India batter Cheteshwar Pujara has opened up on making a potential India comeback after scoring a century in the ongoing One Day Cup for Sussex against Somerset.

Cheteshwar Pujara scored a match-winning century for Sussex in the ongoing One Day Cup in England while playing for Sussex.

West Zone were rattled by Karnataka's Vidwath Kaverappa as the Indian Test hopefuls Sarfaraz Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav all got out cheaply in the Duleep Trophy final.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav are playing for West Zone and are up against Central Zone in the semi-final of Duleep Trophy.

Central Zone captain Shivam Mavi ran riot on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy semi-final as West Zone lost half their side for 65 including the likes of Sarfaraz Khan, Prithvi Shaw and Cheteshwar Pujara.

Cheteshwar Pujara owing to his low returns in Test cricket in the last couple of years lost his place in the side as BCCI announced the squad for the West Indies series.