Watch: Pujara slams another hundred for Sussex

Cheteshwar Pujara has once again thanked Sussex County Cricket Club for resurrecting his international career after the senior India batter slammed a century for the English team on his captaincy debut on Friday against Durham in the County Championship Division Two match played at Hove.

Pujara scored 115 off 163 balls on Friday.

Last season, Pujara had scored five hundreds, and was the fourth highest run scorer in the Championship, accumulating 1094 runs in eight games. His good show in the County Championship allowed him to get back into the India squad for the postponed fifth Test against England in July 2022 after he was dropped earlier the same year after a poor show in South Africa.

After his century on Friday, Pujara once again thanked Sussex for giving him the “platform” that led to his comeback into Team India.

“If you look at the last season, I was out of the Indian and needed some runs to get back into the team. I got the right platform here, scored a few runs and got back into the team. There’s nothing like playing for the Indian team but Sussex has given me that opportunity and I will never forget that,” Pujara said in an interview.

Talking about the match, Pujara walked into the middle after Sussex were reduced to 44/2, Pujara scored 115 off 163 balls to cut short Durham’s lead as he shared a vital 112-run partnership with Tom Clark.

He was eventually trapped leg before by medium pacer Ben Raine.

Sussex finished Day 2 on 308/8 in reply to Durham’s first innings score of 376.

With PTI inputs