India veteran Cheteshwar Pujara continues to break records in first-class cricket after being overlooked for upcoming home Tests against England. In Ranji Trophy – India’s premier first-class (FC) tournament – Pujara crossed 20,000 runs on Sunday (January 21). He’s the fourth Indian batter to do so after Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar. Pujara reached the milestone during Saurashtra’s win over Vidarbha.

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The 35-year-old now has 20,013 runs in 260 FC games at an average of 51.98 with 61 hundreds and 78 fifties. His highest in the FC games is a staggering 352. Among the batters who are in the club, Gavaskar tops the list with 25,896 runs with Sachin (25,396 runs) and Dravid (23, 794) behind him.

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Talking about Pujara, the batter recently entered the record books with his 17th double hundred in first-class cricket. He reached the milestone against Jharkhand on January 7 while batting for Saurashtra in the opening round of Ranji Trophy.

The double hundred was Pujara’s eighth in the Ranji Trophy – second only to Paras Dogra’s nine. In international Tests, Pujara has scored three double hundreds. His rest of six double tons have come in various domestic tournaments across the world, including English county cricket.

For India, Pujara has played 103 Tests, scoring 7,195 runs at an average of 43 with 19 hundreds and 35 fifties. The batter last played a Test for India in June 2023 – the World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2023 against Australia. He could not make an impact in the game, scoring 14 and 27 in two innings as India lost by 209 runs.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) then dropped the batter for the next two series – against West Indies in July 2023 and against South Africa which concluded recently. Shubman Gill was given Pujara’s number three position in both the series as Yashasvi Jaiswal opened the batting alongside skipper Rohit Sharma.

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