Cheteshwar Pujara brought down the curtains on a storied career, remembered largely for his gigantic First-Class achievements across two decades, on Sunday. The Saurashtra batting hero trumped his opponents by the virtue of his undeterred spirit and ability to hold the crease at an end firm for hours and hours. Pujara’s career records in Test match cricket stand as a testament.
No batter, not even the great Rahul Dravid, had faced as many deliveries as Pujara for India in a Test innings as he continues to remain as the only batter from the country to knock down more than 500 balls in an outing. There are other obvious achievements worth remembering. Pujara bowed out as India’s second-best No. 3 ever in terms of runs behind Dravid, with over 90 percent of his career runs coming at the slot.
No Indian featured in more SENA Test match wins than Pujara (11) has during his career, with his gargantuan tally of 66 First-Class hundreds also bettered by only three other Indian legends – Sachin Tendulkar (81), Sunil Gavaskar (81) and Dravid (68). However, there are also the obscure records, those that do not tell the Pujara story in its entirety.
Here is a look at five unknown and versatile Cheteshwar Pujara records
First Saurashtra batter to hit a T20 century
Yes, you read that right. Nearly a decade of his career into international cricket itself, Pujara had become the first batter to slam a T20 hundred for Saurashtra. The Rajkot batter achieved the feat in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match against Railways in Indore, scoring exactly 100* in 61 deliveries with 14 fours and a six. Only two batters have since recorded T20 centuries for Saurashtra. It remained the only century of his 71-match T20 career, which accounted for 1556 runs.
Highest List A average among Indians (beating Virat Kohli!)
Pujara was an accumulator for all seasons and perhaps, every cricket ball too. He could temper the flow in Test matches and could certainly manoeuvre the yards in List A cricket, as is exemplified by his wholesome batting average in 50-overs cricket.
In fact, his runs per innings shares even tops 50-overs phenom Virat Kohli! Pujara’s 57.01 average for 5759 List-A runs is the best among all Asian batters and is only bettered Michael Bevan for anyone who has scored at least 5000 runs the format. Though Kohli averages 56.81 with nearly triple the appearances, it remains somewhat surprising that Pujara was a branded red-ball player after averaging as much as he did across 130 matches.
| Highest List A average (min. 5000 runs) | ||||||
| Player | MTs | Runs | HS | Ave | 100s | 50s |
| Michael Bevan | 427 | 15103 | 157* | 57.86 | 13 | 116 |
| Cheteshwar Pujara | 130 | 5759 | 174 | 57.01 | 16 | 34 |
| Virat Kohli | 336 | 15623 | 183 | 56.81 | 55 | 82 |
| Babar Azam | 202 | 9437 | 158 | 53.92 | 30 | 56 |
| Khurram Manzoor | 166 | 7922 | 190* | 53.52 | 27 | 39 |
| AB de Villiers | 263 | 11123 | 176 | 53.47 | 29 | 63 |
| James Taylor | 136 | 5365 | 146* | 53.11 | 15 | 30 |
| Shubman Gill | 110 | 5039 | 208 | 53.04 | 14 | 26 |
Only ‘A’ triple centurion
Pujara’s penchant for daddy hundreds was etched quite early in his career when he slammed his maiden First-Class triple century in November 2008, two years before his Test debut. Joined by Ravindra Jadeja in an epic fifth-wicket stand, Pujara slammed 302 not out against Odisha in Rajkot, with the duo’s 520-run partnership still remaining a First-Class record for the 5th wicket.
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However, Pujara later went onto smash two more triple centuries in First Class cricket, one of them coming against in an A-level game for India A. Incidentally, Pujara became the first and only player yet to record a triple century while representing an ‘A’ side of any country in First-Class cricket, achieving the feat in 2013 in Hubbali against West Indies. Pujara later went onto declare his stoic ton as one of his best-ever performances at the domestic level.
Batting on all five days..yet
Across his illustrious Test career, Pujara ended up reserving more than 15 complete days batting for India. Interestingly, Pujara also belongs to a rare club of players who ended up batting on all five days of a Test match.
Cheteshwar Pujara batted on all five days of the Eden Gardens Test in 2017. (BCCI)
The rare instance occurred during the 2017 Test against Sri Lanka in Kolkata wherein Pujara entered stumps early on Day 1 with rain playing spoilsport. More runs on day two meant Pujara ended on 47* at stumps before falling on 52 on day three as India folded for a paltry 172. Returning for his second innings late on Day 4, Pujara once again walked to the dug out on 2 at the close of play. He was dismissed on 22 on the final day where India closed in on a thrilling win before rain enforced a draw.
While the marathon man made an entry into the special list of 13 cricketers, Pujara is the only batter from the list to not amass even 75 runs despite batting on each day of a Test.
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Most runs in a country outside England in a season
Outside cricket’s traditional abode of England, Pujara’s sheer peaks as a First-Class cricketer remains as a benchmark for run aggregates in a season. He held an undisputed run in India in the 2016-17 season, scoring 1316 Test runs at 62.66 in 13 matches and finishing with an overall of 2064 runs, including domestic commitments. Pujara broke a 52-year-old record held by Chandu Borde (1604) scoring his mountain of runs at 82.56 with seven centuries, the most in any country outside England in an FC season.
| Most runs in a FC season in India | |||||||
| Player | MTs | Innings | R | HS | 100s | Avg | Season |
| Cheteshwar Pujara | 17 | 29 | 2064 | 256 | 7 | 82.56 | 2016/17 |
| Chandu Borde | 21 | 28 | 1604 | 168 | 6 | 64.16 | 1964/65 |
| Cheteshwar Pujara | 13 | 23 | 1585 | 352 | 5 | 93.23 | 2012/13 |
Understated U19-WC hero
Cheteshwar Pujara in action during the U19 World Cup in 2006. (File)
Shortly after his FC debut, Pujara featured in the 50-overs U19 World Cup for India in 2006. Pujara dominated the batting charts and finished as the highest run-getter of the tournament held in Sri Lanka with 349 runs. While he was adjudged the Player of the Tournament, it was his teammates Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja who surged ahead into the India dressing room with debuts in 2007 and 2008 respectively, and subsquently went onto become bigger names in limited-over formats.
