Mizoram batsman Chinmay Sutar has written his name into cricket history, breaking a world record that had stood for 103 years. The 29-year-old reached 834 runs in his first five first-class innings during the Ranji Trophy 2026-27 season, going past a mark set by one of Australia's greatest batsmen in the early 1920s.
Sutar reached the landmark with a century against Arunachal Pradesh in the current round of the Ranji Trophy. He had already made an unbeaten 400 against Nagaland earlier in the season, and the 175 against Arunachal Pradesh took his tally past the old record.
A Record That Stood for 103 Years
The previous record belonged to Bill Ponsford, the former Australian great, who scored 724 runs in his first five first-class innings in 1921-1923. That mark had survived for more than a century, through generations of batsmen and changing eras of the game, until Sutar went past it in only his fifth innings.
Sutar's total of 834 runs is 110 more than Ponsford managed in the same span. It is a gap that underlines how extraordinary the start to his first-class career has been, and it puts a domestic cricketer from Mizoram at the top of a list that had been led by an Australian legend for 103 years.
How the Five Innings Unfolded
Sutar made his Ranji Trophy debut this season, and his run began modestly by his own later standards. Against Manipur he scored 35 and 99, two innings that showed promise but gave little hint of what was to follow.
Then came the innings that announced him. He made an unbeaten 400 against Nagaland, followed it with 125 against Meghalaya, and then the century against Arunachal Pradesh. In five innings he has already produced three scores of 125 or more, including a quadruple century.
Even a Duck Next Time Cannot Take It Away
The record is so secure that even if Sutar is dismissed for a duck in his next innings, he will still hold the record for most runs in the first six first-class innings. He has already passed Afghanistan's Bashir Shah, who scored 831 runs in his first six innings.
His season tally so far reads 834 runs at an average of 208.50, numbers that are rare at any level of the game. For a batsman playing his first season of first-class cricket, they are almost unheard of.
Late Start, Big Statement
Setting such big records at over 29 years of age shows the hard work behind Sutar's rise. He has come to first-class cricket late, and he has made every innings count since his debut.
A place in the Indian team is never easy to earn, but the way he has begun his first-class career has forced the selectors to think. Long, consistent innings are exactly what the longer format rewards, and Sutar has now produced them five times in a row.
