As 50th Test beckons, Pujara's career in numbers

As Cheteshwar Pujara plays a landmark Test, Rajneesh Gupta salutes the formnidable batsman's career thus far, in numbers.

Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujara, India's most consistent batsman, will complete a landmark 50 Tests in Colombo, on Thursday, August 3.

After 49 Tests, Pujara has an impressive 3,966 runs at an average of 52, with 12 centuries and 15 half-centuries.

His record against Australia and England is good with 1,000-plus runs against them. South Africa is the only nation when his average dips under the 40-mark.

A comparison of Pujara's home and away record throws an interesting picture: He averages a mighty 63 at home, but outside India his average takes a huge dip to 36, something he will hope to correct with India scheduled to play Tests away from home in the next couple of years.

After 49 Tests, his run tally is fourth among Indian batsmen after Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag at this stage in their careers.

He has a better record than Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman and Virat Kohli at this stage in their careers.

Pujara's Test career, in numbers:

Performance against each country:

	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100	50	0
v Australia	12	1,101	204	55.05	48.22	2	6	1
v England	14	1,061	206*	46.13	48.13	4	2	1
v New Zealand	7	649	159	54.08	47.96	2	3	0
v South Africa	8	513	153	39.46	45.07	1	2	0
v Sri Lanka	2	313	153	104.33	52.96	2	0	1
v the West Indies	5	192	113	48.00	44.75	1	0	0
v Bangladesh	1	137	83	137.00	58.29	0	2	0
	49	3,966	206*	52.18	48.17	12	15	3

Performance in each country:

	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100	50	0
in India	30	2,797	206*	63.56	50.51	9	12	1
in Sri Lanka	2	313	153	104.33	52.96	2	0	1
in South Africa	4	311	153	44.42	43.49	1	1	0
in England	5	222	55	22.20	43.52	0	1	1
in Australia	3	201	73	33.50	42.67	0	1	0
in the West Indies	3	62	46	31.00	27.43	0	0	0
in New Zealand	2	60	23	15.00	32.78	0	0	0
Home	30	2,797	206*	63.56	50.51	9	12	1
Away	19	1,169	153	36.53	43.36	3	3	2

Performance in each series:

Series	Vs	In	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	100	50	0
2010-2011	Australia	India	1	76	72	38.00	0	1	0
2010-2011	South Africa	South Africa	2	31	19	10.33	0	0	0
2012	New Zealand	India	2	216	159	72.00	1	0	0
2012-2013	England	India	4	438	206*	87.60	2	0	0
2012-2013	Australia	India	4	419	204	83.80	1	2	0
2013-2014	West Indies	India	2	130	113	65.00	1	0	0
2013-2014	South Africa	South Africa	2	280	153	70.00	1	1	0
2013-2014	New Zealand	New Zealand	2	60	23	15.00	0	0	0
2014	England	England	5	222	55	22.20	0	1	1
2014-2015	Australia	Australia	3	201	73	33.50	0	1	0
2015	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	1	145	145*	145.00	1	0	1
2015-2016	South Africa	India	4	202	77	33.67	0	1	0
2016	West Indies	West Indies	3	62	46	31.00	0	0	0
2016-2017	New Zealand	India	3	373	101*	74.60	1	3	0
2016-2017	England	India	5	401	124	50.13	2	1	0
2016-2017	Bangladesh	Ind	1	137	83	137.00	0	2	0
2016-2017	Australia	India	4	405	202	57.86	1	2	1
2017	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	1	168	153	84.00	1	0	0
Total			49	3,966	206*	52.18	12	15	3

Performance in each calendar year:

The graph shows how Pujara has maintained his consistent form in recent years, twice passing the 800 run mark, in 2013 and 2016.

He has already scored more than 700 runs so far this year.

Year	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rrate	100	50	0
2010	2	105	72	26.25	54.40	0	1	0
2011	1	2	2	2.00	14.28	0	0	0
2012	6	654	206*	81.75	47.94	3	0	0
2013	8	829	204	75.36	56.24	3	3	0
2014	10	483	73	24.15	41.49	0	2	1
2015	5	347	145*	49.57	48.59	1	1	1
2016	11	836	124	55.73	48.43	3	4	0
2017	6	710	202	71.00	44.82	2	4	1

Performance under each captain:

	Mts	Runs	Hs	Avg	SR	100	50	0
M S Dhoni	26	1,979	206*	47.11	49.03	6	5	1
Virat Kohli	22	1,930	202	60.31	47.76	6	9	1
Ajinkya Rahane	1	57	57	28.50	36.53	0	1	1

Performance in each innings:

	Matches	Runs	Highest Scvore	Average	Strike Rate	100	50	0
1st innings	24	1,507	206*	68.50	45.76	6	4	1
2nd innings	24	1,163	204	50.56	47.78	4	4	0
3rd innings	21	859	153	45.21	50.20	2	5	1
4th innings	16	437	82*	36.41	54.96	0	2	1
Team's 1st innings	48	2,670	206*	59.33	46.62	10	8	1
Team's 2nd innings	37	1,296	153	41.80	51.71	2	7	2

Performance in won/lost/drawn Tests:

	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100	50	0
Won	28	2,654	206*	63.19	51.52	8	12	2
Lost	10	541	135	27.05	42.19	1	2	1
Drawn	11	771	202	55.07	42.83	3	1	0

Batting at each position:

	Innings	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100	50	0
1st position	1	0	0	0.00	0.00	0	0	1
2nd position	5	348	145*	174.00	62.25	1	2	0
3rd position	71	3,534	206*	52.74	47.72	11	13	2
4th position	1	28	28	28.00	35.44	0	0	0
5th position	1	4	4	4.00	133.33	0	0	0
6th position	4	52	21	13.00	28.10	0	0	0

Mode of dismissals:

How Out	Times	%
caught fielder	26	34.21
caught wicket-keeper	17	22.37
bowled	17	22.37
lbw	11	14.47
run out	4	5.26
stumped	1	1.32

Breakdown of scores:

Scores	Outs	Not outs
0	3	0
1-9	12	1
10-19	15	0
20-29	12	0
30-39	5	0
40-49	7	1
50-59	4	1
60-69	1	0
70-79	5	0
80-89	2	1
90-99	1	0
100+	9	3
TOTAL	76	7

Performance against Pacers/Spinners"

	Balls faced	Runs scored	Dismissals	Average	Strike Rate
Pacers	4,345	2,016	41	49.17	46.39
Spinners	3,888	1,950	31	62.90	50.15

Pujara's nemesis (Minimum 3 dismissals):

Bowler	Balls faced	Runs scored	Dismissals	Average	Strike Rate
Tim Southee	75	18	3	6.00	24.00
Dale Steyn	206	81	3	27.00	39.32
Nathan Lyon	522	232	7	33.14	44.44
Josh Hazlewood	277	103	3	34.33	37.18
Adil Rashid	174	105	3	35.00	60.34
Stuart Broad	220	113	3	37.66	51.36
James Anderson	402	154	4	38.50	38.30
Ben Stokes	210	119	3	39.66	56.66
Graeme Swann	291	136	3	45.33	46.73

Pujara's favourite bowlers (Minimum average 50)

Bowler	Balls faced	Runs scored	Dismissals	Average	Strike Rate
Stuart O'Keefe	342	117	1	117.00	34.21
Glenn Maxwell	103	82	0	82.00+	79.61
Peter Siddle	144	79	1	79.00	54.86
Nuwan Pradeep	141	74	1	74.00	52.48
Rangana Herath	166	70	0	70.00+	42.16
Ish Sodhi	101	65	1	65.00	64.35
Monty Panesar	204	63	1	63.00	30.88
Samit Patel	133	58	0	58.00+	43.60
Jacques Kallis	89	55	1	55.00	61.79
Pat Cummins	102	54	0	54.00+	52.94
Vernon Philander	172	53	0	53.00+	30.81
Trent Boult	200	105	2	52.50	52.50
Shane Shillingford	71	52	1	52.00	73.23
Zafar Ansari	82	52	0	52.00+	63.41
Mitchell Starc	97	50	1	50.00	51.54

Batting in each block of 10 Tests:

M#	Innings	Runs	Average	Highest Score	100s	50s	0s
1-10	17	813	58.07	206*	3	1	0
11-20	17	930	58.13	204	3	4	0
21-30	18	583	34.29	145*	1	2	2
31-40	16	791	52.73	124	3	3	0
41-49	15	849	60.64	202	2	5	1

Most successful Indian batsmen after first 49 Tests:

Player	Innings	Runs	Highest Score	Average	100s	50s	0s
Sunil Gavaskar	91	4,713	220	56.11	19	21	6
Rahul Dravid	86	4,046	200*	52.55	9	21	2
Virender Sehwag	81	4,020	309	51.54	12	11	8
Cheteshwar Pujara	83	3,966	206*	52.18	12	15	3
Gautam Gambhir	88	3,734	206	44.99	9	19	5
Virat Kohli	84	3,643	211	46.11	13	12	4
Gundappa Viswanath	90	3,557	145	42.86	6	24	6
Sachin Tendulkar	76	3,350	179	49.26	11	15	4
Murali Vijay	84	3,307	167	39.84	9	14	5
V V S Laxman	82	3,282	281	45.58	6	18	6
Mohinder Amarnath	83	3,241	120	42.64	8	19	11

As 50th Test beckons, Pujara's career in numbers

India's Tour Of Australia 2024-25