Cheteshwar Pujara Surpasses Brian Lara's First Class Record, Dominates in Red-Ball Cricket with a Flurry of Runs

Cheteshwar Pujara hit his 66th First Class century in a recent match, surpassing the legendary Brian Lara's tally of 66. This also marks his 25th Ranji Trophy century, putting him ahead of Vinod Kambli and Subramanium Badrinath. Currently, Pujara is only behind Paras Dogra in terms of Ranji Trophy centuries among active players.

Pujara also inches closer to the top three Indian players with the most First Class centuries. He is two behind Rahul Dravid, who scored 68 during his career, as well as Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar, who have scored 81 centuries apiece.

During his century against Chhattisgarh, he also crossed the mark of 21,000 First Class runs, becoming the fourth Indian player after Gavaskar, Tendulkar, and Dravid to do so. Gavaskar currently tops the list with 25834 runs in First Class cricket.

Pujara now has six centuries in 2024, split between Saurashtra and his spell in the County Championship with Sussex. 19 of Pujara’s 66 First Class centuries came for India in Test matches, with the bulk of his centuries having come during his excellent performances in domestic cricket.

Pujara and Saurashtra are attempting to haul down Chhattisgarh’s first innings total of 578 in Rajkot. The visitors rode a double century by captain Amandeep Khare to their total, and Pujara’s century helped Saurashtra to a total of 300/3 at lunch on day 4.

India looks to have moved on from Pujara as they look towards the future for the Test cricket team. Pujara’s last match was in the World Test Championships final against Australia at the Oval last year, and Shubman Gill seems to be in line to become the long-term successor to the number three position Pujara used to occupy.

India is preparing to travel to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but might miss Pujara, who was a hero for the team on each of the previous two tours down under.