Cheteshwar Pujara settles the Messi-Ronaldo debate on Twitter

Cheteshwar Pujara is having a dream run off-late in the Royal London One-Day Cup. The batter smashed his third hundred of the ongoing season against Middlesex on Tuesday. He scored a scintillating 132 off just 90 balls to help his team reach a total of 400 for four in 50 overs. Pujara had earlier blasted a 79-ball 107 against Warwickshire. He then smashed his career-best List A score of 174 in the match against Surrey.

The ‘modern wall of Indian cricket’ organised a question-answer session on his Twitter handle on Wednesday where he answered several queries of his fans. Among the many questions he was asked, there was one asking him to choose between the football greats Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The 34-year-old choose Messi as his favourite football player.

Another fan asked him about his favourite overseas Test victory, to which he replied ‘Gabba 2021’. The Saurashtra Player rated his 92-run-knock against Australia in a Test at Bengaluru in 2017 to be his most favourite cricketing innings of his career. He further rated M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru to be his favourite ground as well.

Messi https://t.co/AgCH8maJtm

— Cheteshwar Pujara (@cheteshwar1) August 24, 2022

Gabba 2021 https://t.co/2lJDhSrpZQ

— Cheteshwar Pujara (@cheteshwar1) August 24, 2022

Coincidentally, most of Pujara’s iconic moments in Test cricket have come against Australia. He made his Test debut against the Aussies at Bengaluru in 2010 and scored a brilliant 72 in the second innings to help India chase 207 on the last day of the match. He was the highest run-scorer in India’s first-ever Test series win in Australia in 2018-19 where he scored 521 runs at an average of 74 in seven innings.

Pujara also scored a resilient 56 off 211 balls on the final day of the historic Gabba Test in 2021 which India won by three wickets. The victory also ended Australia’s 33-year-long unbeaten streak at the venue. As a result of this historic win, India won the second consecutive Test series down under.

Pujara, who lost his place in the Indian Test squad this year, stormed his way back into the team after scoring heavily in county cricket.