Sports
Cheteshwar Pujara scored his ninth First-Class double-hundred against Tamil Nadu at Chennai on December 1, 2013. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at the rapid ascent of the Saurashtra youngster.
Updated : Sep 29, 2017, 01:58 PM IST
With his 269 in the run-fest at Chennai, Cheteshwar Pujara joined the list of batsmen who have scored nine First-Class double-hundreds. Since as many as 38 batsmen have scored 10 or more this may not seem to be a phenomenal feat. However, what makes Pujara’s feat special is the fact that only Don Bradman has scored as many double-hundreds at a younger age.
Pujara was 25 years 310 days old when he got that 269 against Tamil Nadu on Sunday. Had he got 31 more runs he would have been the fourth batsman (after Bradman, Bill Ponsford, and Wally Hammond) to score four First-Class triple-hundreds.
It must be remembered that Pujara has batted in only 143 innings, which is substantially less than the others. In fact, he has taken the minimum innings (after Ravindra Jadeja) among those who have scored three triple-hundreds.
Most 300s in First-Class cricket | |||
| Inns | 300s | Inns per 300 |
Ravindra Jadeja | 70 | 3 | 23.3 |
Cheteshwar Pujara | 143 | 3 | 47.7 |
Don Bradman | 338 | 6 | 56.3 |
Bill Ponsford | 235 | 4 | 58.8 |
Brian Lara | 440 | 3 | 146.7 |
Michael Hussey | 486 | 3 | 162.0 |
Wally Hammond | 1,005 | 4 | 251.3 |
Graeme Hick | 871 | 3 | 290.3 |
WG Grace | 1,478 | 3 | 492.7 |
[Note: Jadeja’s conversion rate has been phenomenal. Four of his seven hundreds have been over 200; three of these four have been over 300.]
What about double-hundreds, then? Where does Pujara stand in when compared to the ones with 10 or more First-Class double-hundreds? Here, too, he comes only next to Bradman — ahead of the other champions of First-Class cricket:
Most 200s in First-Class cricket | |||
Inns | 200s | Inns per 200 | |
Don Bradman | 338 | 37 | 9.1 |
Cheteshwar Pujara | 143 | 9 | 15.9 |
Bill Ponsford | 235 | 13 | 18.1 |
Vijay Merchant | 234 | 11 | 21.3 |
Wally Hammond | 1,005 | 36 | 27.9 |
Younis Khan | 304 | 10 | 30.4 |
Brian Lara | 440 | 13 | 33.8 |
KS Ranjitsinhji | 500 | 14 | 35.7 |
Bobby Simpson | 436 | 12 | 36.3 |
Vijay Hazare | 367 | 10 | 36.7 |
Brad Hodge | 388 | 10 | 38.8 |
CB Fry | 658 | 16 | 41.1 |
Darren Lehmann | 479 | 11 | 43.5 |
Mark Ramprakash | 764 | 17 | 44.9 |
Rahul Dravid | 497 | 10 | 49.7 |
Justin Langer | 622 | 12 | 51.8 |
Javed Miandad | 632 | 12 | 52.7 |
Graeme Hick | 871 | 16 | 54.4 |
Sunil Gavaskar | 563 | 10 | 56.3 |
Patsy Hendren | 1,300 | 22 | 59.1 |
Gordon Greenidge | 889 | 14 | 63.5 |
Herbert Sutcliffe | 1,098 | 17 | 64.6 |
Percy Holmes | 810 | 12 | 67.5 |
Len Hutton | 814 | 11 | 74.0 |
Graham Gooch | 990 | 13 | 76.2 |
Johnny Tyldesley | 994 | 13 | 76.5 |
Zaheer Abbas | 768 | 10 | 76.8 |
Glenn Turner | 792 | 10 | 79.2 |
Viv Richards | 796 | 10 | 79.6 |
Joe Hardstaff | 812 | 10 | 81.2 |
Arthur Shrewsbury | 813 | 10 | 81.3 |
Jack Hobbs | 1,325 | 16 | 82.8 |
Reg Simpson | 852 | 10 | 85.2 |
Mike Gatting | 861 | 10 | 86.1 |
Andy Sandham | 1,000 | 11 | 90.9 |
Jack Hearne | 1,025 | 11 | 93.2 |
Geoff Boycott | 1,014 | 10 | 101.4 |
Phil Mead | 1,340 | 13 | 103.1 |
WG Grace | 1,478 | 13 | 113.7 |
What about Tests, then? From 15 Tests Pujara has scored 1,310 runs at a phenomenal 65.50. Of all batsmen with 15 or more Tests Pujara ranks second in terms of batting average — next to Bradman (who should be eliminated from such lists for the sake of sanity).
However, it really isn’t fair to compare Pujara’s career to that of other greats: after all, he has played only 15 Tests while Herbert Sutcliffe has averaged 60.73 over a period of 54 Tests. Let us, then, compare the top batsmen after their first 15 Tests. Only nine people had averaged more than Pujara after 15 Tests, and none of them is an Indian.
First 15 Tests | Rest of career | Career | |||||||
Tests | Runs | Ave | Tests | Runs | Ave | Tests | Runs | Ave | |
Don Bradman | 15 | 2,215 | 105.48 | 37 | 4,781 | 97.57 | 52 | 6,996 | 99.94 |
Jimmy Adams | 15 | 1,351 | 84.44 | 39 | 1,661 | 29.14 | 54 | 3,012 | 41.26 |
Herbert Sutcliffe | 15 | 1,509 | 79.42 | 39 | 3,046 | 54.39 | 54 | 4,555 | 60.73 |
Arthur Morris | 15 | 1,408 | 70.40 | 31 | 2,125 | 37.95 | 46 | 3,533 | 46.49 |
Neil Harvey | 15 | 1,381 | 69.05 | 64 | 4,768 | 44.56 | 79 | 6,149 | 48.42 |
Everton Weekes | 15 | 1,576 | 68.52 | 33 | 2,879 | 54.32 | 48 | 4,455 | 58.62 |
Wally Hammond | 15 | 1,506 | 68.45 | 70 | 5,743 | 56.30 | 85 | 7,249 | 58.46 |
Frank Worrell | 15 | 1,403 | 66.81 | 36 | 2,457 | 43.11 | 51 | 3,860 | 49.49 |
Thilan Samaraweera | 15 | 857 | 65.92 | 66 | 4,605 | 46.52 | 81 | 5,462 | 48.77 |
Cheteshwar Pujara | 15 | 1,310 | 65.50 |
Of the nine men, Jimmy Adams has been the only one with an ordinary career. His average dropped drastically as his career progressed before he eventually vanished into oblivion. Based on the numbers it is very likely that Pujara might finish with an exceptional career.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is a cricket historian and Senior Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He generally looks upon life as a journey involving two components – cricket and literature – though not as disjoint elements. A passionate follower of the history of the sport with an insatiable appetite for trivia and anecdotes, he has also a steady love affair with the incredible assortment of numbers that cricket has to offer. He also thinks he can bowl decent leg-breaks in street cricket, and blogs at http://ovshake.blogspot.in. He can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ovshake42)