Cheteshwar Pujara became the 11th cricketer from India to score 6000 runs in the longest format of the game. The batsman reached the milestone during the final day of the Sydney Test, where India are facing an uphill task to chase a record total.
The 32-year-old made his debut in 2010 against Australia and has gone onto cement his spot in the team ever since at the crucial number three position. He has scored 18 centuries and 25 half-centuries with several match-winning knocks.
Pujara went past the figure in his 80th test, having taken 134 innings in the process. The number three batsman is now the sixth-fastest Indian player to reach the landmark behind Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid. Gavaskar, who holds the current record for an Indian, took 111 innings to achieve the feat.
The other Indian batsmen to have crossed the 6000 test run mark are VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Mohammad Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar and Gundappa Vishwanath.
The Rajkot batsman came under scrutiny for his scoring rate during his first-innings half-century. He had scored his slowest ever test fifty by taking 174 deliveries to reach the figure.
He replicated his feat on the final day with a crucial fifty which gives India a fighting chance to create history in Sydney with Rishabh Pant going hard at the other end. Pujara currently stands tall unbeaten at 52 off 172 deliveries and has stitched a massive 133 run partnership for the fourth wicket with the wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant.
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