Abhimanyu Easwaran knocks BGT door with fourth consecutive first-class century

Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran hit his fourth consecutive first-class century against Uttar Pradesh in the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2024. The 29-year-old is in phenomenal form and recently hit back-to-back centuries for India B in the Duleep Trophy. Later, he also scored a century in the Irani Cup and now, made his presence known with a century in the opening game of the Ranji Trophy.

He is placed well to be selected for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy, slated to begin on November 22. He is competing for the third opener’s spot alongside Ruturaj Gaikwad, who made 86 runs batting at number four for Maharashtra against Jammu and Kashmir. Easwaran meanwhile flopped with the bat in the first innings but bounced back strongly in the second innings of the game.

Batting first, Bengal posted 311 runs on the board in the first innings. Opener Sudip Chatterjee made 116 runs, while batting at number three, Sudip Gharami made 90. Meanwhile, Yash Dayal had a terrific outing with the ball as the pacer picked up four wickets. He was part of India’s squad for the Test series against Bangladesh but was interestingly dropped from the upcoming New Zealand Tests.

Mukesh, who is also in the reckoning, picked up four wickets for Bengal. Spinner Shahbaz Ahmed picked up a four-wicket haul as Bengal restricted Uttar Pradesh to 292 runs and took an 11-run lead in the first innings. For UP, captain Aryan Juyal made 92 while Siddharth Yadav made 73.

Easwaran and Chatterjee stole the show in the second innings of the game. They took some time to settle down and stitched a partnership of over 200 runs to help Bengal remain in the driver’s seat. Meanwhile, Easwaran has put himself in a very good spot ahead of the Border-Gavaskar series but there’s still a lot to do and he needs to remain consistent to get into the India squad. He was part of the India squad previously but wasn’t handed an opportunity to make his debut.