"India should have asked him to lead in Test vs England" - Twitterati reacts as Cheteshwar Pujara scores 5th ton in County season

Cheteshwar Pujara continued his superlative form for Sussex by bringing up his fifth century of the season against Middlesex at Lord's in London on Tuesday.

Incidentally, Pujara was appointed as interim captain after regular captain Tom Haines broke a bone in his hand whilst batting against Leicestershire last week.

In his first game as captain, the India international led the team from the front with an unbeaten century at the end of Day 1. This is his fifth century of the season, a run which includes a double hundred.

Pujara came out to bat when Sussex were on 99 for the loss of two wickets and shared a 219-run stand with Tom Alsop (135) to put the team on the driver's seat. The Saurashtra-born batter scored at a healthy strike rate of 63.19 and was unbeaten at 115 at stumps. His knock was decorated with 10 boundaries and one six.

Fans were extremely delighted to see Pujara scoring runs consistently for Sussex in County Championship Division Two.

Sussex end Day 1 at 328/4 against Middlesex

Sussex batters dominated the proceedings on the first day of the game, posting 328 runs on the board, with Cheteshwar Pujara going strong at 115.

Middlesex captain Tim Murtagh got the first breakthrough in the seventh over, dismissing Alistair Orr for seven. But Tom Clark and Alsop consolidated the innings to add 81 runs for the second wicket before the former departed.

With the score at 99/2, Alsop and Pujara started rebuilding the innings. They rotated the strike, kept the scoreboard ticking and stitched together a mammoth 219-run partnership.

Middlesex made a comeback at the fag end of the day's play by picking up two quick wickets. However, Cheteshwar Pujara survived the last few overs to take the team to stumps without the loss of any more wickets.

India's Umesh Yadav, who is playing for Middlesex, remained wicketless in the 18 overs he bowled.

About the author

Ankush is a cricket journalist at Sportskeeda covering news, listicles, features, and exclusives. A graduate in Commerce and an accountant by qualification, Ankush followed his true calling for sports journalism, and today, has over 8 years of experience having working for the likes of Sportzwiki and Cricfit. Ankush places a very high emphasis on factual accuracy in his articles and believes in representing the true image of the story. Writing in the simplest and most easy-to-understand language possible, especially for those not well-versed with English, is one of his strengths.

Ankush, who captained his state in the National School games, is a big fan of Ravichandran Ashwin. He admires his unconventional thinking and his eagerness to keep learning despite being a legend of the game. His favorite cricket team is Australia because of their mentality and fighting spirit, and them beating India in the 2003 World Cup final left a lasting impression on him.

Apart from watching and covering cricket, Ankush also likes to read books whenever possible.

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