Cheteshwar Pujara made his second century of the season for Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy today (February 9), scoring 110 against Rajasthan in Jaipur.

It was the 62nd first-class century of his career, and came after Saurashtra fell to 33-2. Kevin Jivrajani was bowled for a duck in the first over of the match and Harvik Desai was out for 21 to bring Pujara to the crease early. Saurashtra were in further trouble when Vishvaraj Jadeja was out for 22, leaving them 74-3. But a 168-run stand between Pujara and Sheldon Jackson stabilized the innings, and took them to 242-4 by the close of play.

Pujara hit nine boundaries on the way to his century but he was eventually trapped lbw by left-arm spinner, Kukna Ajay Singh.  However, having made his second hundred of the season, he is now the third leading run-scorer in the competition so far, having scored 648 at an average of 81 across nine innings.

Earlier in the competition, Pujara scored a double hundred against Jharkhand and became the fourth Indian batter to score 20,000 first-class runs alongside Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar. The double-hundred was the 17th of Pujara’s first-class career, putting him fourth on the all-time list behind Don Bradman (37), Wally Hammond (36), and Patsy Hendren (22).

Pujara hasn’t played a Test match for India since the World Test Championship final in June 2023. Despite the absence of Virat Kohli for the first four Test matches of India’s series against England, as well as injury to KL Rahul for at least the second, and unconfirmed injury reports to Shreyas Iyer, Pujara hasn’t been added to India’s squad. Instead, India called-up Sarfaraz Khan to their squad for the second Test, with Rajat Patidar making his Test debut in the middle order at Vizag.

Pujara has played 103 Test matches and averages 43.60 with 19 centuries. India are set to name their squad for the third Test in the coming days.

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