India and Australia are in action at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium, formerly known as the Feroze Shah Kotla, for the second Test of the 4-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series. While the hosts chase a fourth-straight Test series victory against the Aussies and a berth in the finals of the Global Test Championships to be played at the Oval in June, India’s star top-order batter Cheteshwar Pujara reaches yet another significant landmark in his Test career.
Pujara, who debuted for India in Tests against Australia in 2010, will achieve the 100th career Test for India landmark against the same opposition in the second Test match of the BGT 2023. As such, the Indian players did their part, giving the solid defensive batter a guard of honour, while coming out to the field in the first session of the ongoing Test in Delhi.
Here’s a video of the thoughtful gesture:
A guard of honour for Cheteshwar Pujara. pic.twitter.com/oDPD8fbLXU
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) February 17, 2023
Cheteshwar Pujara couldn’t make his mark in Test 1 of the BGT
Pujara, on his 100th Test for India, will hope to improve upon his performance from the first Test at Nagpur. The defensive batter could only conjure seven runs in the game. India won the match by an innings and 132 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series. Therefore, Cheteshwar Pujara had no second innings in the game to make up for the loss in the first innings.
Notably, Pujara has a tally of 7021 Test runs from 169 innings accounting for an average of 44.15 with a highest score of 206*. He has 34 fifties and 19 centuries to his credit in the red-ball game. The Test specialist is considered the perfect replacement for Rahul Dravid in Test. Much like the wall himself, Pujara is known for his solid defence and a stubborn strike rate of 44.44 in the game’s longest format.
Speaking of the ongoing game, the Australian won the toss and decided to bat first. They will now look to doing well in the match and levelling the series.
