Cheteshwar Pujara bats on all five days, enters elite club

New Delhi, November 20: Cheteshwar Pujara on Monday (November 20) entered an elite club when he entered the field to bat on Day 5 of the first Test against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens.

Pujara became the third Indian batsman and ninth overall to bat on all five days of a Test.

Pujara came in to bat for the first time in this Test after KL Rahul was dismissed off the first delivery of the match on first day.

He went on to make 52 off 117 balls - a knock that stretched across three days.

Then when Shikhar Dhawan departed after a breezy 94, he walked in to bat late in on Day 4 before returning unbeaten on two.

Then, on Monday morning - the fifth day - he resumed the India innings with a set Rahul who had also left behind the disappointment of a first-ball duck with a classy 73*.

Before Pujara, two Indians - ML Jaisimha and current India coach Ravi Shastri - have had this distinction to have batted on all five days.

While Jaisimha did it against Australia in 1960, scoring 20 not out and 74, Shastri entered the club in 1984 against England scoring 111 and 7 not out.

Interestingly, all these three knocks have come at Kolkata's Eden Gardens.

List of batsman to have batted on all five days

ML Jaisimha (India)

Geoffrey Boycott (England)

Kim Hughes (Australia)

Allan Lamb (England)

Ravi Shastri (India)

Adrian Griffith (West Indies)

Andrew Flintoff (England)

Cheteshwar Pujara (India)