A splendid ton in his 50th Test match followed by Nomination for the Arjuna Award – the day belongs to Cheteshwar Pujara

In an age of swashbuckling and mindless hitting, Cheteshwar Pujara is perhaps the coolest mind at the big stage; an archaic batsman on whose face calmness is written all over. Pujara is a treat to the eye as he brings back visuals of the classic Test match batting, something that is clearly missing in modern cricket. At one point of time in his career, the 29-year-old was repeatedly dropped from the playing XI to make way for Rohit Sharma. But with his 13th Test ton, and the third consecutive ton in Sri Lanka, the Gujarat batsman has earned the trust of Captain Virat Kohli and the team management. Pujara can now rightly be called the cornerstone of Indian Test cricket.

Playing his 50th Test match, Pujara scored his 13th Test century and also crossed 4000 runs in whites. His century was largely pivotal to India’s huge total of 344 at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo on Thursday. This was also his second ton of the series, following the 153 that he scored in Galle.

He walked in to bat after Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed early on, and though he began in a typically slow fashion, runs started coming in faster once he was in rhythm. At one point, India stuttered at 133-3, but Pujara, along with Rahane, who too brought up a century, rescued India from a brief period of tension.

For a long time now, Pujara has been an unsung hero of Indian Cricket. He silently goes about performing his duty, without grabbing much of the limelight. However, the third quickest batsman to score 4000 Test runs has now found himself on the list of nominees for the Arjuna Award. And that is a clear testament to his value in Indian cricket. Another Indian cricketer to feature on the prestigious list of nominees is all-rounder Harmanpreet Kaur.

Over the years, especially the last year, Pujara has carved his own niche in the Indian team. During India’s long home season 2016-17, he accumulated 1316 runs from 13 Tests, no mean a feat. The unheralded guardian has rescued the team from danger on multiple occasions. And there could not have been a better occasion to bring up the marathon innings – in his historic 50th Test.