It has taken a while longer than many would have expected but the Cheteshwar Pujara’s special moment has arrived when he came out to bat in his 50th Test match for India in Colombo against Sri Lanka.
The formidable test batsmen has made his debut against Australia back in October 2010 where he scored 72 of 89 balls to help control India to triumph over Australia in Bangalore, it seemed like the youngster with an inclination for runs had made a consistent progress from first class cricket. But injury during the IPL has dented his opportunity to play some more test matches as he was sidelined until August 2012.
The flawless batsmen from Gujrat made his return in the Indian Test side by scoring 159 against New Zealand. The astonishing display of 159 in post Dravid era helps Pujara to fill the vacant place of no.3 spot.
His 206 unbeaten against England in Ahmedabad showed his composure and his immense hunger of scoring runs. Then he went to score his second double century(206) in Hyderabad against Australia. India’s no.3 has produced many silken innings against different opponents like 145* against Sri Lanka in Colombo and 202 against Australia where he faced 525 balls most by any Indian Batsmen.
Cheteshwar Pujara has really transformed himself into a dependable batsmen in last couple of years and has scored seven of his 13 centuries in last 24 months.
Pujara has scored 128* in his 50th Test match imitating the likes of Polly Umriger(147 against England in Kanpur), Sunil Gavaskar(221 against England at Oval), Gundappa Vishwanath(124 against West Indies), Kapil Dev(100* against West Indies), VVS Laxman(178 against Australia) and Virat Kohli( 167 against England).
The orthodox batsmen who puts stock in setting aside his opportunity to settle in and crush the opposition down. His essence at No.3 has been precious to Kohli’s main Test side.
The Saurashtra Lad has also crossed 4000 run in 84 innings mark becoming second joint quickest to accomplish the feat after Virendra Sehwag and Sunil Gavaskar as they took 81 innings each and Rahul Dravid in 84 innings.
All-inclusive, Pujara has become the 15th Indian to achieve the mark of 4000 test runs.