Sanjay Manjrekar says Cheteshwar Pujara would have ended up getting 300 if he had been part of England tour

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar reckons Cheteshwar Pujara would have scored a triple century if he had been part of the five-match Test series against England. Barring the fifth Test match, the pitches in the first four Test matches were batting-friendly, and Manjrekar reckons Pujara would have scored heaps of runs against a beleaguered English bowling line-up.

India came up with an impressive batting display as the likes Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, and Ravindra Jadeja all scored more than 400 runs each in the series.

Meanwhile, Pujara announced his retirement after playing 103 Tests and 5 ODIs for India on Sunday. He scored 7,195 Test runs at an average of 43.60, with 19 hundreds and 35 fifties.

Sanjay Manjrekar said in a video on Instagram, “Had he (Cheteshwar Pujara) gone to England this time around, the kind of bowling attack England had, the pitches that were there in that series, Pujara, even at this stage, would have ended up getting 300.”

Manjrekar recalled when Pujara made a comeback to the Test team and he was asked to open the innings. The solid batter batted throughout the innings and scored an unbeaten knock of 145 to help India register a 117-run win against Sri Lanka at the SSC in 2015.

Manjrekar said, “A couple of times, he was dropped from the Indian team, and one comeback that he made was in Sri Lanka, and he had to come back into the playing XI as an opener. And guess what he did? He batted right through the innings. That is Pujara for you, just unbelievable.

“A very likeable person, no matter what. The career wasn’t easy, and for a defensive batter, the kind of grappling that he did, life was tough for him on the cricket field, but he always had this very pleasant smile on his face.”

Overall, Pujara finishes with 21301 runs from 278 first-class games at an average of 51.82 and 66 hundreds and three triple hundreds.