Adelaide: Cheteshwar Pujara on Thursday became the 12th Indian batsman to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket during his gritty knock of 123 against Australia on the opening day of the first Test here.
The 30-year-old notched up his 16th hundred in his 65th Test, at the Adelaide Oval, reaching the 5,000-run landmark in 108 innings, the same as the legendary Rahul Dravid, who made the No 3 slot his own.
Pujara is the second active Indian cricketer with 5,000 runs after skipper Virat Kohli who has amassed 6,331 in 124 innings.
Pujara’s 246-ball innings was also his maiden Test 100 on Australian soil. He also reached his 14,000 first-class runs Thursday.
He also became the fifth fastest Indian to cross 5,000 runs in Tests after Kohli, who was the fourth fastest Indian to cross the landmark last December after Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar.
Pujara also joined an elite list of Indian cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay, who have scored a century on the opening day of a tour outside Asia.
Pujara’s 16th Test 100 and first in Australia helped India recover to 250-9 at stumps, after they had been reduced to 127-6 at one stage.
Pujara is not known for hitting sixes but it is something he prepared for ahead of the series. “To be honest, when I was preparing back home, I was working on a few shots and that was one of them. I wasn’t surprised that I hit it for a six because I had worked on it back home. I had to obviously bat for two sessions to realise that these are the shots I could play and there were some shots which I had to avoid,” he said.