Team India Cheteshwar Pujara How Pujara became identity in Virat Rohit’s era, Indian Test character character Hero

New Delhi.Cheteshwar Pujara has retired from all the formats of cricket. His career teaches us that cricket is not just a game of fours and sixes, but also the story of patience, struggle and trust. Pujara’s contribution cannot be measured only by his run, but can be understood by the art of staying at the crease. This is not just a retirement, but the end of a golden chapter of Indian Test cricket. The story of his career tells us that the real hero is the one who handles the team behind the screen, not in the light. Pujara was the same soldier who stood as a shield, when the whole team was staggering.

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.

Not just run, strength of stagnation

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.

When the team wanted support, Pujara was standing

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.

Golden chapter written on Australia soil

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.

There was also a decline, but remained confident

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’s real contribution

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.