Cheteshwar Pujara finally got his mojo back with a cracking ton in the first Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram on Friday (December 16) which ended his 1443-day long century drought in the longest format of the game. He whacked his 19th ton (102) which was his fastest in Tests as it came in 130 balls to spur India to post a colossal target of 513 for Bangladesh and ultimately win the match by 180 runs.
Meanwhile, India's Test specialist Pujara is on the cusp of achieving a big milestone ahead of the second Test against Bangladesh which will be played on December 22 in Mirpur. The 34-year-old is just 16 runs shy of the big feat as he is set to join the elite list of Indian batting juggernauts in the longest format of the game.
Riding on 6984 runs in Tests, Pujara will be joining the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli if he manages to score 16 more runs to enter an elite list of batting giants with 7000 or more runs in Test cricket. Beside this, Pujara is also just 12 runs short of leapfrogging the run tally of Australia batting great Donald Bradman. Pujara, who made his Test debut in 2010, is expected to go past Bradman in the second Test, who had amassed 6996 runs in a total of 52 Tests.
With regular captain Rohit Sharma yet to recover from his thumb injury, no changes are expected in the Indian playing eleven. The first Test presented a golden opportunity for the likes Shubman Gill, who scored a century, and Kuldeep Yadav, who snared a brilliant fifer, and they made it count. Had Rohit been fit for the game, it would have been extremely difficult to drop Gill following his maiden Test hundred in Chattogram. However, that situation did not arise and Gill will be keen to cash in on another opportunity.
Earlier on Friday, Pujara hit 13 fours on his way to a 19th Test match hundred. With the Indian team looking to declare its second innings at a lead nearing 500, Pujara accelerated in the latter part of his stay to manage the hundred. Coming off just 130 deliveries, this was Pujara’s fastest Test hundred. His first 50 runs took 87 deliveries while the second 50 came in 43 balls. The 34-year-old remained unbeaten at 102 runs when captain KL Rahul declared the innings with a lead of 512 runs. Virat Kohli was on the other end, batting on 19 runs off 29 deliveries.
With Rohit ruled out of the second Test as well, Rahul will look to whitewash Bangladesh in the second Test to bolster their spot in the World Test Championships.
