How has Pujara performed under various captains in Tests?

List out Cheteshwar Pujara’s Test performances under various captains? - Ranga on twitter

Cheteshwar Pujara made his Test debut in Bangalore against Australia in October 2010 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. He batted at #5 in the first innings while scoring four in three balls. However, in the second innings, he was sent in at #3, where he excelled with a masterclass knock of 72 in 89 balls. This knock enabled his side to successfully chase the target of 207 in the fourth innings. Since then he has also played under Virat Kohli and also under the stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. His Test batting record under the three Indian captains is given below:

Any Indian origin player ever to play in the Ashes for England or Australia? - Vaibhav Patil on twitter 

Yes, three Indians, namely KS Ranjitsinhji (15 Ashes Tests from 1896 to 1902) and his nephew KS Duleepsinhji (4 Ashes Tests in 1930) and Ifthikar Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi sr (3 Ashes Tests from 1932 to 1934) have had this distinction of playing in Ashes Test matches for England. However, there have been a few others like Raman Subba Row (5 Ashes Tests in 1961), Nasser Hussain (23 Ashes Tests from 1993 to 2003), Monty Panesar (6 Ashes Tests from 2006 to 2013) and Ravi Bopara (4 Ashes Tests in 2009) who have Indian connections, to have appeared in the Ashes series. A special mention should be made here of Mark Ramprakash (12 Tests from 1993 to 2001), whose paternal family was from Guyana but belonging to the Indian stock. Interestingly, the first four named above (Ranjitsinhji, Duleepsinhji, Pataudi sr and Subba Row) have the distinction of scoring a century in their Ashes debut! So far, no Indian origin player has played in Test matches for Australia.

How many occasions has a batsman hit a six off the very first ball of the match across all three formats? - Nagesh Kumar Sahu on Facebook

West Indies opener Chris Gayle became the first and the only player to hit a six off the very first ball of a Test match when he came down the track and swung the first ball high over the long-on boundary boards off the bowling of Bangladeshi debutant offie Sohag Gazi in Mirpur on 13 November 2012. Gayle hit one more six off the fourth ball and thus the opening over cost 18 runs that also included four leg-byes. However, the bowler later took his revenge by claiming Gayle’s wicket in his third over when he had him caught at long-off.

Any batsman opening the batting as well as bowling in Test cricket? – Bhavya Anjaria on twitter

There are several such instances in Test cricket. The first player to do so was Englishman Allen Hill in the inaugural Test match at Melbourne in March 1877. Interestingly, in the first four Test matches from 1877 to 1880 four players - Englishmen Allen Hill, Alfred Shaw, George Ulyett and Australian Harry Boyle - had this distinction of opening the batting as well as opening the bowling. Pankaj Roy against West Indies at Delhi in February 1959 became the first Indian to open the batting and bowling. However, the distinction of doing this on most occasions in Test cricket goes to India’s Manoj Prabhakar - 22 times, followed by another Indian ML Jaisimha on 13 occasions and Pakistani Mudassar Nazar nine. A glance at the list throws up some interesting names, such as West Indian Frank Worrell and Sunil Gavaskar - both four times, while England’s Jack Hobbs has done it on three occasions.

Which bowler-fielder combinations (excluding wicketkeepers) have effected the most dismissals in Tests, ODIs, and T20s? – Ajit Singh on twitter

The best bowler-fielder combinations (excluding wicket-keepers) in each format have been as follows:

When Arjuna Ranatunga appeared in his country 100th Test match in June 2000, in how many Test matches he had played by then? Is he the player who has appeared in most matches after a side’s first 100 Tests? – S Venkatraman on Facebook

When Arjuna Ranatunga appeared in his country’s 100th Test match at the SSC in Colombo against Pakistan in June 2000, he was playing in his 88th Test match. This means he was involved in 88% of the Tests played by his country in their first 100 Test matches. This is by far the maximum for any player in Test cricket. The next highest in the list is the 67 Tests by Zimbabwean Grant Flower in October 2016, followed by Bangladeshi Mohd Ashraful with 61 Tests in 2017 and Indian Polly Umrigar with 59 Tests in 1967.  The fewest Tests played in a country’s first 100 Tests is 35 by England’s Tom Hayward in July 1909.  Incidentally, Ranatunga is the only player to play in both in his country’s inaugural (in 1982) and 100th Test match (in 2000).

Could you please compare the Test centuries by Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, GR Viswanath, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman & Sourav Ganguly.  And also, how many such century knocks have resulted in victories, losses and draws for India? And overall, worldwide which batsman has the highest win% while making a century? - Sultan Sattani on Twitter

Among these six players you have mentioned, Tendulkar has the maximum winning centuries, however Dravid’s win% is the highest just ahead of Laxman. The table below has the details:

To answer the third part of your question, overall, the best win% belongs to two batsmen, Australian Warwick Armstrong and India’s Rohit Sharma. They both have a 100 win% record. All their six Test centuries have come in winning causes. They are followed by Aussie Darren Lehmann with all his five centuries coming in Tests that his side won. However, among Test batsmen with at least 10 or more centuries, the best win% is 82.35 by another Aussie Adam Gilchrist (14 100s out of 17), followed the greatest Australian Don Bradman (23 100s out of 29) thus giving him a win% of 79.31.     

All records mentioned above are updated until 22 June 2020 

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