Kerala star Jalaj Saxena’s career stats left two former Indian selectors surprised in a bizarre on-air moment, which went viral on social media and earned backlash from cricket fans during the first day of play of the Ranji Trophy game between Kerala and Maharashtra on Wednesday (October 15) at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram.
Saxana walked out to bat at number seven with Maharashtra in a spot of bother at 58-5 after they made a miserable start in their first game of the tournament, as four of their top five departed without a run on the board as they were left reeling at 5-4
As his incredible stats appeared on the broadcast, two ex-selectors, Chetan Sharma and Salil Ankola’s remarks left the cricketing world stunned. Ankola claimed that he was suprised Saxena never played for India before Chauhan reminded him they were both selectors. Ankola was quick to blame Chauhan and stated that he was the chairman of the selection committee.
“Salil, you used one word ‘very surprising’, but let me tell you, we were both former selectors,” said Chetan. “And you were the chairman!,” Ankla replied. “Fingers must’ve been raised at us as well,” Chetan concluded.
For those unversed, Chetan was the chairman of India’s selection committee from 2020 to 2023. Ankola served in the committee from January 2023 to August 2024. It is worth noting that Jalaj was taking domestic cricket by storm in this period.
Jalaj Saxena – An Indian domestic cricket legend
Jalaj is the only player in the history of the Ranji Trophy to score over 6000 runs and take more than 400 wickets. Infact, he is the only Indian after Kapil Dev, Madan Lal, and Ravindra Jadeja to score more than 7000 runs and take over 450 wickets in first-class cricket.
Saxena was making his debut for Maharashtra and made 49 runs. Incredible, the 38-year-old made his maiden appearance for his new team against his former side. The all-rounder played for Kerala for nine seasons from 2015-16 to 2024-25. Before that, he started his career in Madhya Pradesh two decades ago in 2005 and played for them till 2015.
Saxena has played 150 first-class matches in his career and made 7060 runs at an average of 33.77 while taking 484 wickets. He has also played 109 List A games and 74 T20Is. However, he has never played for India and has only played one Indian Premier League (IPL) match in his career in 2021. However, he played three games for the Mumbai Indians in the 2014 Champions League T20.