Veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara has broken the silence over his decision to retire from all forms of Indian cricket. The talismanic batter, Cheteshwar Pujara who played 103 Tests for India, decided to draw a curtain to his illustrious career on Sunday. Cheteshwar Pujara stood as the pillar of India’s Test success over the past decade, anchoring the crucial No. 3 position.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s grit and consistency were central to several iconic triumphs, none bigger than India’s historic Test series victory on Australian soil during the 2018-19 tour, where he was also named Player of the Series.
Cheteshwar Pujara made his Test debut in 2010, and it took him a couple of years to become one of India’s most dependable players in the format after Rahul Dravid’s retirement. During his illustrious career, he scored 7,195 runs in 103 matches at an average of 43.60, including 19 centuries and 35 half-centuries. His presence at the crease brought solidity and endurance, wearing down opposition attacks and frequently becoming the pillar around which India’s Test innings were built.
The veteran batter made it clear that it was his personal decision to take the retirement from domestic cricket as well. He expressed a desire to create space for younger talents, believing they deserve more opportunities to develop at this stage of their careers.
January 2019. Earlier that month, Cheteshwar Pujara had been the toast of the nation, scoring centuries in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney as India won a Test series in Australia for the very first time. Now he was the villain of all of Karnataka, or at least the few hundred despondent diehards at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium who watched him seal their team’s fate with an unbeaten fourth-innings hundred that steered Saurashtra into the final of the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy.
The bulk of Cheteshwar Pujara’s innings came against the backdrop of chants from these diehards. “Cheater! Cheater! Cheater!” Once in each innings, he had been reprieved by the umpire when he seemed to have edged behind. Both times, he stood his ground and batted on.
But as out of step as he may have seemed, Cheteshwar Pujara was a formidable cricketer who at his peak ranked just below the four great Test batters of his age. Quite a peak it was too; at the end of that 2018-19 Australia tour, he averaged 51.18 and had scored 18 hundreds in 68 Tests
His numbers declined in the pandemic and post-pandemic years, but he was hardly alone in suffering that fate, with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane going through similarly prolonged slumps as India played Test match after Test match, home and away, in treacherous batting conditions.
And all of that, and perhaps the effects of age on his game, have left many of us with a somewhat diminished image of Pujara the batter. In the tributes from team-mates and former players that have flowed since his retirement announcement, the most frequently used word, by far, is “grit”, and the most frequently evoked image is of the body blows he took during his 211-ball, fourth-innings 56 in the Gabba fairytale of 2021.
And while this meant he stopped scoring hundreds – he only made one in his last 35 Tests – he still made significant contributions to India’s results: two half-centuries spanning 381 balls in the 2021 SCG draw, that aforementioned 56 at the Gabba, a 206-ball 45 in a slow-burning, match-turning century stand with Rahane at Lord’s in 2021, and a second-innings 61 at The Oval in the same series.
Following his retirement, Cheteshwar Pujara revisited his olden days and provided what he felt after a epic innings of the the famous Gabba Win in 2020-2021 BGT tour.
Cheteshwar Pujara revisits older memories of BGT 2020-21 after his retirement from international cricket
Sunday saw the end of an era of Indian cricket with the retirement of Test stalwart Cheteshwar Pujara. He took to his social media accounts to make the announcement via an emotional post. A veteran of 103 Tests, Pujara retired with over 7000 runs and 19 hundreds in the format.
The numbers speak volumes about Cheteshwar Pujara’s dominance in the longest format of the game. And who would know his brilliance better than the Aussies? The right-hand batter played some memorable knocks during the Australia tours in 2018-19 and 2020-21. He was adjudged the Player of the Series when India pocketed the 4-match tour 2-1 under Virat Kohli’s leadership in 2019. Two years later, when the visitors looked to defend the trophy, his grit and determination left the Australians frustrated once again.
Following his retirement, Cheteshwar Pujara opened up on how he dealt with blows on his body while batting, especially in the 2021 tour of Australia.
“In moments like these, it is important to look at the bigger picture. You are batting for your team, billions are looking up to you and wanting and praying for the team to do well with the series on the line. When you get hit on the body, you do get shattered sometimes, but then you have to keep your calm. You have to trust yourself, the game and the ability,” Pujara told The Indian Express.
“Getting hit once or twice is fine, but when it hits repeatedly on the same spot, the pain becomes unbearable. That’s where the mental toughness comes in. That’s when your dedication and love for the country come in. I believe in God, and he gives me strength. In tough times, you need that spiritual power, which is something beyond human understanding. I get strength that I cannot describe, but I get strength”, he further added.
Cheteshwar Pujara is the second-fastest Indian to score 1,000 Test runs and, following his double century against Australia in March 2017, rose to a career-best No. 2 in the ICC Test batting rankings. He also became the 11th Indian to cross 6,000 runs in Test cricket.
None of this was enough to ward off time, of course, and the surge of batting talent pounding at India’s door. But let’s put the job Pujara did in perspective. Since his last Test match, the six batters India have tried at No. 3 have collectively averaged 31.95 across 24 Tests. A fading Cheteshwar Pujara, over his last 24 Tests, averaged 31.51.
The end came with a second defeat in a second World Test Championship final in 2023, but it wasn’t really the end. The Pujara of Saurashtra, Sussex and West Zone would score a further 2057 first-class runs, at an average of 51.42, with seven hundreds. A fitting finish, on Pujara’s own terms, leaving you wondering if he couldn’t have gone on just a little longer.
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