NEW DELHI: India's Test batting icon Cheteshwar Pujara played a magnificent role in the opening Test match against Bangladesh which India won by a huge margin of 188 runs.
Pujara missed out on a century in the first innings and departed for 90 but the star batter left that disappointment behind soon and reached the triple-figure mark in the second innings. The right-hander notched up his 19th Test century, scoring 102 off 130 balls at a strike rate of 78.46. This was his fastest century in Tests.
With 19 centuries, Pujara has joined the greats like Ross Taylor (New Zealand), Gordon Greenidge (West Indies), Clive Lloyd (West Indies), and Mike Hussey (Australia).
With India, who are 1-up in the two-match series, slated to take on Bangladesh in the second Test from Thursday (December 22), Pujara will have the chance to go past Australia batting legend Donald Bradman.
Pujara, who has 6984 runs in Tests, needs just 12 runs to go past Bradman's tally of 6996 runs. Bradman played 52 Tests and scored 6996 Tests at an average of 99.94.
Pujara, who made his Test debut in 2010 vs Australia in Bengaluru, has featured in 97 Tests so far and scored 6984 runs at an average of 44.76. The Saurashtra cricketer is the eighth highest run-getter for India in Tests.
Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar is on top of the list with 15921 runs in 200 Tests, averaging 53.78.
MOST TEST RUNS (INDIA)
