The stop with which Pujara batted in his very first match is still fresh in the minds of senior journalists like Anil Kumble and Ayaz Memon. In the match played in Bangalore, Cheteshwar was just a trailer of 70 runs, whose whole picture we saw the next ten years. If you analyze Pujara’s batting, they will find that he was the student of the old school who also wanted to learn the new era.
Pujara made his debut in October 2010 and since then he faced 15,797 balls in Test cricket. There are only four batsmen in the world who have played more balls from them – Joe Root, Alastair Cook, Azhar Ali and Steve Smith. This shows how important he was for India. His average remained close to 43, but the real strength was in his capacity where he tired the bowlers. He could be dismissed only after every 99 balls in a 13 -year career. There are few such players who take the ball from ball to the opposition team’s stamina.
Pujara scored 7021 runs, but more than the figures, when he was at the crease, India added 15,804 runs. That is, more than 30% runs were scored in his presence. This record is above veterans like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. Think, when the team was under pressure and the wickets were falling, then Pujara’s presence at the crease used to bring confidence for the rest of the batsmen.
Who can forget the Australia series of 2018-19? In that series, Pujara scored 521 runs and scored three centuries. He faced 1258 balls – that is, every day, in every session, the Australian bowlers were held. Pujara’s innings became immortal in India’s first historic Test series win.
The pace of scoring runs slowed since 2018. There was a drought of century even on home grounds. Earlier, where his domestic average was around 63, the same fell to 31 after 2018. But in spite of this, the captain and fellow players considered him to be the “most trusted player of the team”.
Pujara scored 19 centuries and scored more than 7000 runs. But his biggest strength was that he gave the team the basis on which the rest of the batsmen could play big innings. After Rahul Dravid, he was called the “new wall” and he got this title perfect.
Cheteshwar Pujara was not just a batsman, he was the soul of Indian Test cricket. He reminded us that even in this era of fast cricket, matches can be won with patience, technology and passion. Sannyas has definitely ended a round, but her innings will always be alive in the memories of cricket lovers.