Cheteshwar Pujara on the brink of another fine milestone, can join Gavaskar, Viswanath, Kohli in elite list

India’s Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara has had a quite series so far against England. One of the key players responsible for India's back-to-back Test wins in Australia, the 33-year-old has scored just one fifty in the three Tests. Since his innings of 73 runs in the first Test in Chennai, Pujara has had disappointing outings, scoring 15, 21, 7 and 0 in the second and third Tests.

On Thursday, when Cheteshwar Pujara takes the field against England, the right hander batsman has a chance to join a remarkable list. Currently sitting on 955 runs, Pujara is 45 runs short of totaling 1000 Test runs at home against England. If he achieves that, Pujara will join the elite list that consists of three of the biggest names in Indian cricket – Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath and Virat Kohli – all of whom have scored over 1000 runs against England on home soil.

Sunil Gavaskar sits on top of the charts with 1331 runs from 22 Tests at an average of 35.97, followed by Viswanath (1022 from 17 matches at 36.50). Virat Kohli is slightly behind with 1015 runs, but his have taken just 12 Tests and at an average of 59.70. Virat Kohli also has three centuries and four half-centuries, while Viswanath had three of each. Gavaskar scored eight half-centuries and three hundreds against England at home.

Cheteshwar Pujara, however, has the most centuries against England at home (four). His runs have come from 12 matches at an average of 53.05. Pujara has a best score of 206 not out against England, which incidentally came in Ahmedabad, at the earlier Sardar Patel Stadium. It is also Pujara's highest individual score in the longest format of the game. It's been long since Pujara last scored a ton for the men in blue. He has gone 19 Tests without a century.

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