Ranji Trophy 2025: Bengal’s Ankit Chatterjee broke this 35 year old big record of Ganguly

Ankit Chatterjee breaks Ganguly’s record: When Ankit Chatterjee opened his account for Bengal with a brilliant cover drive against experienced Haryana fast bowler Anshul Kamboj in his Ranji Trophy debut match, it brought back memories of former legend Sourav Ganguly, as the teenage left-handed batsman By surpassing the former captain of India, he became the youngest player to play Ranji for this state. Ankit made his Ranji debut at the age of 15 years and 361 days, while Ganguly played his first match for Bengal at the age of 17 in 1989–90. This match was the final of Ranji Trophy in which Bengal defeated Delhi. The journey of Ankit, a Class 10 student of Bangaon High School, till this moment has been full of sacrifice and tireless dedication.

To reach the Kolkata ground, he has been waking up at 3.30 am almost every day for the last three years and after a two-hour journey by the 4:25 Bongaon-Sealdah local train, he used to walk for half an hour to reach the Kolkata ground. His daily routine ends at nine or 10 o’clock at night. Ankit learned of his debut two days before the match when established opening batsman and India A cricketer Abhimanyu Easwaran was ruled out of the match due to a hairline fracture. However, instead of getting nervous, Ankit accepted this opportunity with patience, which according to his childhood coach Dolon Golder has been his ‘trademark’ quality.

Ankit said about his ‘signature shot’ (cover drive) after the match in Kalyani, ‘It was absolutely normal for me and I also slept well last night. I was not thinking of being aggressive, but the ball. I deserved that shot, so I did it. At the end of the day’s play, Bengal’s score was one wicket for 10 runs and Ankit was batting on five runs.