Cheteshwar Pujara, playing for Saurashtra in the second round of the Ranji Trophy, scored a century against Chhattisgarh. Pujara faced 197 balls to reach his century. Chhattisgarh had posted a massive total of 578 runs in their first innings after winning the toss. In response, Saurashtra lost two wickets for just 81 runs. Coming in at number 3, Pujara played a crucial century knock for his team. This was Pujara’s 25th century in the Ranji Trophy and his 66th in first-class cricket. With this century, Pujara surpassed Brian Lara, who had 65 centuries in first-class cricket, making history.
Along with this century against Chhattisgarh, Cheteshwar Pujara also crossed the 21,000-run mark in first-class cricket. He is now among the top four Indian players with the most runs in first-class cricket. Sunil Gavaskar holds the record for the most runs in first-class cricket with 25,834 runs. Sachin Tendulkar follows with 25,396 runs, while Rahul Dravid is in third place with 23,784 runs.
Pujara ranks fourth on this list, having scored over 21,000 runs at an average of 50. Not only that, but Pujara has also moved to third place among Indian players with the most first-class centuries. In this list, Gavaskar and Tendulkar are tied at the top with 81 centuries each, while Dravid holds the second spot with 68 centuries, and Pujara is third with 66 centuries.
Cheteshwar Pujara has been out of the Indian team for about 1.5 years. His last appearance for India was in the World Test Championship final at The Oval. Since then, he has not been selected for the team. However, he has been piling up runs in first-class cricket. This year, Pujara has played 16 first-class matches and has already scored six centuries. In the previous Ranji Trophy season, Pujara also performed exceptionally well, scoring 829 runs at an average of 69 in just eight matches.