Virender Sehwag comes up with his familiar wit to applaud Cheteshwar Pujara's show in Australia

Indian cricket fans have been taken for a time machine ride by the team’s No.3 Cheteshwar Pujara in the ongoing Test series versus Australia to the days when Rahul Dravid used to stand like a wall between the bowler and the wicket. The 30-year-old batsman picked up his third century of the series at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Thursday, helping India to consolidate their position on Day 1 of the match at 303 for 4 at stumps. It may be mentioned here that India haven’t lost whenever Pujara scored centuries on two other occasions in this series which India lead 2-1.

Pujara scored tons in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney

Pujara, whose place in the team came under an unknown uncertainty in the Test series in England last year and also missed a game, steered his team out of trouble on the very first day of the first Test in Adelaide and his 123 eventually saw India winning the match by 31 runs.

That set up the momentum and the batsman followed it up with another timely 106 in Melbourne which helped India dominate and finally win the match. The 130 not out in Sydney is the third instance of Pujara hitting a hundred on the first day of the Test match in Australia, a feat which is not matched often.

Former India opener Virender Sehwag applauded Pujara in his familiar witty style on Twitter on Thursday after the Indian batsman produced his heroic and praised his determination and consistency. Pujara is by far the best batsman in this Test series despite the presence of the all-weather man Virat Kohli who could manage only one hundred that came in Perth. Even the Australian captain Tim Paine asked Pujara whether he was not bored of scoring after the Indian batsman has faced over 1,100 balls already in the series with four more days to go.

Here’s his tweet

Zindagi na milegi Pujara. Brilliant to watch the determination and the consistency has been amazing.
Congratulations @cheteshwar1 on your third hundred of the series.

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) January 3, 2019

Pujara now has three hundreds on the Australian soil, just one less than the legendary scorer against the Kangaroos, VVS Laxman, although overall he has five tons against them with two double hundreds scored at home in 2013 and 2014.

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