"I want to play Test cricket for India": Moliya, 21, on Baroda's record Ranji triple hundred

Priyanshu Moliya says it took a while for the number to sink in. The 21-year-old’s unbeaten 321 against Jammu and Kashmir at Reliance Stadium in Vadodara last week is the highest score ever made by a Baroda batter in the Ranji Trophy, and his first triple hundred in first-class cricket.

“It was a different feeling when I got there,” Moliya said in an interview with the BCCI on Sunday. “I couldn’t believe that I had hit 300, but once the innings got over, I realised ‘I have really hit 300.’”

He came in at No. 3 with Baroda in early trouble at 63 for 3, after Dhruv Patel and Shashwat Rawat had gone. “My only thinking was to take the team to safety first and then build a strong total,” he said.

The partnerships

Moliya added 91 with Deepak Hooda, then 238 for the seventh wicket with Mahesh Pithiya and 145 for the ninth with Rasikh Salam as Baroda piled up 616. Jammu and Kashmir were bowled out for 303 and fought back in the second innings through Abdul Samad’s 143, so the match was drawn, with Baroda taking three points for the first-innings lead.

Asked about his strengths, Moliya kept it simple: “I am very calm and patient.”

A long road to 321

Big scores are not new to him. At 13 he made an unbeaten 556 in an under-14 tournament. He made his Ranji debut at 17, hit centuries in his first two matches in 2022 and played for India at the 2024 Under-19 World Cup. Last season he scored 834 runs in six Col C K Nayudu Trophy games, and this season he had already made a hundred against Bihar in round two.

Coached by his father and a fan of Virat Kohli, Moliya has his sights on the Test side. “I want to play Test cricket for India,” he said.