Cheteshwar Pujara becomes fourth Indian batter to score 20,000 runs in First Class cricket, joins elite list

Cheteshwar Pujara on Sunday became the fourth Indian batter to score 20,000 runs or more in first-class cricket. Pujara achieved the milestone during Saurashtra’s Elite Group A fixture against Vidarbha in Nagpur, which the visitors went onto win by 238 runs. Pujara joined an elite list comprising of Sunil Gavaskar (25,834 runs), Rahul Dravid (23,794 runs) and Sachin Tendulkar (25,396 runs) as the only other Indian cricketers to score 20,000 runs or more in First Class cricket. Pujara went onto score 43 and 66 in the two respective innings against Vidarbha. The 35-year-old might have been an out of favour batter as far as the Team India Test side is concerned, but he has been in prolific form in domestic cricket, having scored 444 runs from five innings in the Ranji Trophy this season already. Apart from playing domestic cricket in India, Pujara has also been a vital part of the Sussex setup in English county cricket, having amassed centuries for the team very often. Pujara last played a Test for India during the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval in June last year. Pujara endured scores of 14 and 27 in that match. Till date, Pujara has played 103 Tests for India, having scored 7195 runs at an average of 43.60. This includes 19 hundreds and 35 fifties.