On Friday, in Delhi, senior India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara became the 74 cricketer (13th Indian) to win 100 Test caps for his country. It was fitting that Pujara recorded this feat against Australia, an opposition against whom he’s had great success, both home and away.
The 35-year-old was felicitated by batting legend Sunil Gavaskar on the morning of the Delhi Test, with Gavaskar hailing Pujara as a great servant of Indian cricket, and someone who had put his body on the line – referring to the 2020/21 series in Australia, where Pujara took dozens of body blows in order to protect his wicket – for his team.
In 99 Tests, Pujara scored 7021 runs at an average of 44, with 19 hundreds, including 3 double hundreds.
Pujara made his Test debut in 2010 and has been a rock in the middle order for India, and in the past few years he’s taken his batting to the most extreme style.
Pujara has been part of India’s golden generation Test team, with the team achieving immense success, both at home and away.
During this time, there were also a few players who made their Test debuts after Pujara’s debut, but didn’t have as long a career as Pujara’s.
Here are 5 players who made their Test debuts after Cheteshwar Pujara, but faded away:
Stuart Binny
With India reeling with a dearth of quality seam-bowling all-rounders, Karnataka all-rounder Stuart Binny made his Test debut in 2014 in England. Binny was impressive on debut, scoring 78 runs in India’s second innings, but that remained his highest score in a 6-Test career.
Binny managed 194 runs with the bat in 10 innings and picked up only 3 wickets. He played his last Test match in November 2015.
Varun Aaron
One of the India’s fastest bowler at the time, Varun Aaron offered great hopes for India with his extra pace and bounce when he made his Test debut in 2011.
However, Aaron’s cricket career remained plagued with injuries, and his erratic bowling, lacking control of line and lengths meant he was a risky option in Test cricket: in 9 Tests, Aaron picked 18 wickets and leaked runs at an economy of 4.77.
Aaron featured in 9 Tests from 2011 to 2015 before being dropped altogether.
Subramaniam Badrinath
A domestic legend and an IPL stalwart with CSK, Subramaniam Badrinath, however, couldn’t make it count in Test cricket. The right-handed Tamil Nadu batsman made his India Test debut in 2010, and got to play in only 2 Tests, against South Africa at home, wherein he scored 63 runs in 3 innings with a best of 56.
With the competition for places ripe, with some of the seniors still around, Subramaniam Badrinath didn’t get any opportunity after that.
Abhinav Mukund
Another domestic legend who didn’t get a lot of chances in Test cricket is left-handed batsman and Abhinav Mukund. Selected mostly as a backup opener or an injury replacement, Mukund played in 7 Tests spanning his career from 2011 to 2017.
In 14 Tests innings, the southpaw scored 320 runs at an average of 22 with 2 fifty-plus scores, failing to convert any of them into a hundred.
Naman Ojha
After MS Dhoni and before Rishabh Pant, and with Saha injured, India tried Madhya Pradesh’s wicket-keeper Naman Ojha for a Test match against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2015. Ojha scored 56 runs across two innings in Colombo with a best of 35, but didn’t get a chance ever again to play Test cricket.
