India Test batter Cheteshwar Pujara has announced his retirement from Test cricket. Cheteshwar Pujara aged 37 played 103 Test matches and made his Test debut in 2010. He finished with scoring 7,195 runs in Test cricket at an average of 43.60 which included 19 hundreds and 35 fifties. At home, he scored 3839 of his total Test runs and averaged 52.58.
For over a decade, he essayed an important role at Number 3 in some of the team’s most significant Test wins at home and overseas. Pujara’s last Test appearance was the World Test Championship final against Australia in Oval in June 2023. Even as India looked elsewhere for top-order options since that fixture, Pujara continued to play red ball cricket for Saurashtra and also played for Sussex in the County Championship.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s announcement of retiring from all forms of cricket.
Taking to social media platform X, Cheteshwar Pujara posted: “Wearing the Indian jersey, singing the anthem, and trying my best each time I stepped on the field- it’s impossible to put into words what it truly meant. But as they say, all good things must come to an end, and with immense gratitude I have decided to retire from all forms of Indian cricket.”
Cheteshwar Pujara’s Notable Performances In The Past.
Cheteshwar Pujara scored the first of his 19 Test hundreds against New Zealand in Hyderabad in August 2012. Against England at home two months later, Pujara scored his first double century and followed that up with a ton in the Mumbai Test which was a test more known for Kevin Pietersen’s heroics. In an enthralling drawn Test against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2013, he scored a magnificent 153 in the second innings batting for nearly six hours.
Another notable away performance came in Colombo in 2015, where he was tasked to open the innings and came out with flying colours. He scored 145 off 289 deliveries batting for long periods as he did. In England 2018, he stood tall on a seaming Southampton track to score an unbeaten 132 with Virat Kohli’s 46 being the next best score in this scorecard.
Pujara followed that up with a second innings 51, although it came in a losing cause. Another Test where he displayed his gumption to bat long was in Ranchi against Australia where he sweated and battled it out for 672 minutes and 525 deliveries for a double hundred. Cheteshwar Pujara is only one of three Indians to bat on all five days of a Test match with the others being ML Jaisimha and Ravi Shastri.
Cheteshwar Pujara was central to India’s back-to-back series wins in Australia. In 2018-19, he hit three centuries in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney as India secured a historic Test series win Down Under. He toured two years later and defined his grit as he batted out 928 balls across four Tests against the likes of gun bowlers like Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc. He also copped several blows to his body en-route to a defiant 211-ball 56 in Brisbane, where India fashioned one of their most famous away Test victories ever.
Cheteshwar Pujara was an integral member and was the rightful successor of Rahul Dravid at Number 3. He made the Number 3 slot his own showing great grit and determination always. After his retirement, the Number 3 slot has been a revolving door with multiple players plying their trade but no one till date has been able to dial in on that spot. It’s been more than 2 years since Pujara played for India, and no one has been able to take the Number 3 spot which is very important in Test cricket.
Going forward, maybe India might give a long run to Sai Sudharsan but he is not a certainty yet. It shows the importance that Pujara did for India for so many years and as he retires today, we salute him for his wonderful services and dedication that he put in for Indian cricket over the years.
Also Read: IND vs WI: “Focus Single Mindedly”- Dilip Vengsarkar’s Words of Wisdom For Yashasvi Jaiswal