On February 17, when India will come out chinned up at the Arun Jaitley Stadium to face the Kangaroos for the second time in the Border-Gavaskar series, the man in focus would be the 35-year-old middle-order batter who is often eclipsed by the likes Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant in terms of popularity due to his different game of play.
India’s no. 3, Cheteshwar Pujara will don the Indian Test jersey for the 100th time, becoming the 13th player to feature in the 100 Test match club for the country. A man of very few words, his contribution to Indian cricket is beyond the brilliant numbers on his portfolio.
“There is a lot more to achieve”- Pujara
With 99 matches and over 7000 runs in International cricket to his name. Pujara expressed that there are more dreams to be achieved, ahead of his landmark Test in a press conference
“There is a lot more to achieve. I am definitely satisfied and really excited to play this hundredth Test match. But at the same time, we are playing an important series. So, hopefully, we win this Test match and move on to win another Test match which will ensure we will qualify for the WTC final.”
“My dream is to win a WTC final for the Indian team, which didn’t happen in the last final. But hopefully, once we qualify, we move towards that. Playing 100 Tests means a lot to me and my family, my father has played an important role, and he will be here tomorrow. I am thankful to my family for their support.” said Pujara.
The modern wall of Indian cricket
A cult hero, Pujara still belongs to the rare group that believes in wearing down an attack in an era where aggression and taking the attack to the bowlers is widely considered as the best strategy, tightly holding on to his end since his debut back in 2010.
With the greats like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Rahul Dravid still in the picture, the 22-year-old forced his way into the side with a crucial, quickfire 72 off 89 balls on debut. But he could grind down and frustrate the opponents that helped in his 13-year-long career where he managed to score 7021 runs at an average of 44.16, with 19 hundred and 34 fifties under his belt.
Only four batters in the world have faced more than his 15,797 deliveries in this format, a testament to his obdurate nature. Pujara has been dismissed once every 99.4 deliveries. One of the main reasons behind India’s changing face in the World in the longest format, his match-winning knocks in Australia and England are forever engraved in our memories.
But the red-ball game, as they say, is the real ‘tester’, the past few years in his career did not live up to his stature, his average from 52.96 dropped to 44.15, and the constant hundreds and fifties a forgotten sight. He lost his place in the series against Sri Lanka last but fought it back with a stellar county stint with Sussex this year.
Now a 20-match century-scarce behind, we will get to witness another version of Pujara when he gets out to bat for his landmark match Saturday.