During the opening day of the first Test against Australia, Cheteshwar Pujara once again exhibited his class and temperament which makes him a rare commodity in modern-day cricket. With wickets falling at the other end, the 30-year old held one end up and battled hard for runs against a dominating pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. Pujara’s 16th Test hundred and first in Australia helped India recover to 250/9 at stumps after they had been reduced to 127/6 at one stage.
What was interesting however was during his knock, Pujara also completed his 5000 runs in Test cricket. There is an even great coincidence that Pujara reached the milestone of 5K runs (108 innings) in rhe same number of Test innings as compared to his ‘idol’ Dravid.
Heights of Coincidence! Dravid and Pujara have reached their milestones of 3000 runs, 4000 runs and 5000 runs in Tests in the exact same number of innings.
The 30-year-old put on two crucial partnerships with the lower-order batsmen to ensure India give their bowlers something to bowl at. Post tea, Pujara added 62 runs with R Ashwin (25) for the seventh wicket. The latter played watchfully, unlike the Indian top-order, and played a great role in this minor recovery.
