Cheteshwar Pujara joined the group of four Indian batters who’ve accomplished over 20000 runs. This happened in his First-Class cricket career on a Sunday, January 21st. This notable event took place during a Ranji Trophy 2024 game, with Vidarbha and Saurashtra in full swing.
To start the season well, Saurashtra won the game by a commanding 238 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara helped Saurashtra establish a mark that was beyond Vidarbha’s reach with a solid performance of 43 (105) in the first innings and a superb half-century in the second.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s recent score of 66 (from 137 balls) added him to a prestigious list of Indian run-scorers. He now sits alongside Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, and Rahul Dravid, who also surpassed 20,000 First-class (FC) runs during their careers.
Cheteshwar Pujara has now hit a total of 20,013 runs. He’s played 260 FC games, averaging 51.98 per game. His impressive track record includes 61 hundreds and 78 fifties. Plus, he’s scored 17 double hundreds. Despite this, Pujara, now 35, hasn’t been picked for the Indian Test team lately. His last appearance? It was the World Test Championship final against Australia June last year.
“He doesn’t score runs only for selection” – Aakash Chopra on Cheteshwar Pujara
Aakash Chopra, a former Indian batter, has examined Cheteshwar Pujara’s respectable results in the Ranji Trophy 2024. According to him, Cheteshwar Pujara plays for the pleasure of batting in addition to scoring runs to support his claim of being selected for the Indian Test team.
Chopra stated in a video posted on his YouTube channel:
“He is the saint of cricket. He will keep scoring because he doesn’t score runs only for selection. Half the world scores runs for selection. He plays cricket just because he likes batting. He scores runs because he likes scoring runs.”
Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra continued:
“So Cheteshwar Pujara will continue to score runs and break all records in first-class cricket. I think he has already scored 61 first-class centuries. He will make 100, he won’t stop, he won’t retire at all.”
Aakash Chopra
