Sri Lanka Vs India 2017: Cheteshwar Pujara Becomes 7th Indian To Score Century in 50th Test

Continuing his red-hot form with the bat, Cheteshwar Pujara added yet another feather to his cap as he became only the seventh Indian player to celebrate his 50th Test with a century. The run-machine from Saurashtra remained unbeaten on 128 after day one of the ongoing second Test against Sri Lanka at Colombo on Thursday (August 3).

Pujara has been one of India’s most consistent performers in the last one year or so. One of the lynchpins of India’s Test team, Pujara enjoyed a highly successful home season which consisted of as many as 13 Tests. He finished the mammoth 2016-17 home season as India’s highest run-getter, amassing a staggering 1316 runs which included four hundreds and eight half-centuries. His form played an integral part in India’s series wins over New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia at home.

Highest Test batg ave for Ind
Min: 1200 runs
53.80* Cheteshwar Pujara
53.79 Sachin Tendulkar
52.64 Rahul Dravid
51.12 Sunil Gavaskar#SLvInd

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) August 3, 2017

A four-month gap, meanwhile, did not affect his form as he scored a brilliant 153 in the first innings of the series-opener against Sri Lanka at Galle before hitting another ton in his milestone game. Pujara has now joined Polly Umrigar (147* vs England in Kanpur, 1961), Sunil Gavaskar (221 vs England at the Oval, 1979), Gundappa Viswanath (124 vs West Indies in Chennai, 1979), Kapil Dev (100* vs West Indies at Port of Spain, 1983), VVS Laxman (178 vs Australia in Sydney, 2004) and Virat Kohli (167 vs England in Vizag, 2016) who have scored centuries in their 50th Test.

Meanwhile, India finished the day on 344 for 3 after Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane (103*) scored unbeaten centuries. Virat Kohli & Co. were in a spot of bother after being reduced to 133 for 3 with the in-form Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli back in the hut, but Pujara and Rahane added an unbeaten partnership of 211 runs to put the visitors firmly on top after day one.