Yesterday we talked about the best bowling performances of some of the great fast bowlers in test cricket and today it is the time of the batters as we will be talking about 2 of the modern great Indian batters in test cricket who have given so much in the last decade and are still trying to contribute more to the team. The first one that we will talk about in this article is the immovable Cheteshwar Pujara. Let’s look at his records so far in test cricket below.
Cheteshwar Pujara has been playing test cricket for India since 2010 and he has played 96 Test Matches in total and is looking good for 100 Test Matches. In those 96 Test Matches he has scored 6792 runs at an average of 43.82 and he also has 18 Test hundreds and 3 double Hundreds to his name till now. Cheteshwar Pujara is looking to play for another 2-3 years and score 10,000+ runs in test cricket which will be a massive achievement. So, let’s look at the Top 5 Best batting Performances of this modern great.
159 vs New Zealand (2012)
This is the first Test Hundred for Pujara and this was the innings that helped India win this test match so it deserves a mention on this list. He was 2 years into test cricket and finally in this match when India were batting first he came in at number 3 and just started batting beautifully and he played 309 balls for his 159 and he hit 19 fours and 1 six in this mammoth innings and his strike rate was 51.96 and this innings established Pujara as a proper test batter and he never looked back.
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206* vs England (2012)
It looks like the year 2012 was very kind to Cheteshwar Pujara as this is the second innings that is from 2012 and this is his first double hundred in test cricket so it has to be here in this list and he was not out during the entire Innings. He came to bat at his usual number 3 position and from the moment he came to bat he looked like no one would get him out and he just batted and batted and he played 389 balls and in this marathon he hit 21 fours which means 84 runs in boundaries and at a strike rate of 52.96. The most impressive part was that he remained not out and as a result India won this test match by 9 wickets.
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204 vs Australia (2013)
This innings that he played against Australia is one of his best ever and it came in 2013 against a very good Australian team and it was his second double hundred in test cricket as well. Australia were bowled out cheaply in the first innings and in reply Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara had a mammoth partnership and Pujara just went about his business and frustrated the bowlers by not getting out and hitting 30 fours and 1 six in this innings in the process which means a total of 126 runs in boundaries. His strike rate was 59.82 and India won this match by an innings and 135 runs and he was the man of the match.
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153 vs South Africa (2013)
This is one of the best overseas Innings by an Indian batter in recent years and this innings more than deserves to be in this list. More amazingly it came in the second batting innings for India when they were in a bit of pressure and he stepped up in tough conditions and made a brilliant 153 In 270 balls and he hit 21 fours in this innings. His strike rate was 56.67 and he ensured that India would not lose this match and this was the big overseas innings that Pujara was looking for.
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132* vs England (2018)
This is the 5th performance in this list and it came in 2018 vs England where all the other Indian batters were unable to get runs. He was the one who got one of his best Hundreds and proved that he can get runs in the most difficult of conditions. Even though India lost the match he made 132* from 257 balls while hitting.16 fours at a strike rate of 51.36 and this innings gave a lot of respect to Pujara from all corners and he was the mainstay of test cricket. Hopefully we see more such incredible innings from this great player.
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