The Indian cricket team began their Border-Gavaskar Trophy series with a scintillating win in the opening match against Australia in Nagpur by a huge margin of an inning and 132 runs. Team India had plenty of positives in the first match, including a stunning century from captain Rohit Sharma and five-wicket hauls for spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Now after succeeding in the first match, the Indian side will be hoping to extend their lead in the ongoing Test series by winning the 2nd Test match in Delhi, beginning on 17th February. It has to be noted that in order to book a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at stake, the Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team needs to win two more Tests in the ongoing four-match series.
Cheteshwar Pujara To Achieve A Huge Milestone
All the limelight will be on Cheteshwar Pujara, who will also be featuring in his 100th Test match. Pujara will become the 13th Indian cricketer to achieve this feat.
Speaking to Hindustan Times ahead of the match, the 35-year-old also pointed out that he made his debut against Australia and that they always bought the best out of him.
“It is the best team in the world, I have made my debut against them so my first and the 100th Test will be against Australia. They are a competitive side. It is never easy to score runs against them. They are always very expressive, they are very talkative, and they bring the best out of me. They always put up a fight, challenge you and I always enjoy that challenge” he said.
Talking about numbers, in 99 Test matches, Cheteshwar Pujara has registered 7021 runs, including 19 hundreds and 34 half-centuries, along with a high score of 206*.
With this achievement, Pujara will be joining an elite list of Indian players, who have also played 100 or more Test games, which includes the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, and Virender Sehwag.
Check out the complete list of players to play 100 or more Test matches:
| Name | Test Matches |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 200 |
| Rahul Dravid | 163 |
| VVS Laxman | 134 |
| Anil Kumble | 132 |
| Kapil Dev | 131 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 125 |
| Dilip Vengsarkar | 116 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 113 |
| Virat Kohli | 105 |
| Ishant Sharma | 105 |
| Harbhajan Singh | 103 |
| Virender Sehwag | 103 |
