He retired with 7,195 Test runs to his name.
Former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin paid his tribute to Cheteshwar Pujara after he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Sunday. Pujara played 103 Tests, where he smashed 7,195 runs at an average of 43.60. The Saurashtra-based batter also hammered 19 centuries and 35 half-centuries in the longest format of the game. Pujara was renowned for spending time in the middle. He used to frustrate bowlers with his defensive technique and sheer patience.
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Pujara’s Test debut was against Australia in Bengaluru in 2010. His last Test was against the same opposition at The Oval in 2023. He played five ODI matches too during his Test career, but he returned with just 51 runs. Pujara’s success came single-handedly in the red-ball format of the game.
According to Ashwin, Pujara played a huge role in helping Virat Kohli score his runs in Test matches.
“Not every cricketer gets the attention, but that does not mean their contribution is any less. Pujara’s contribution at No.3, believe it or not, was instrumental in helping Virat Kohli also make a lot of his runs,” said Ashwin on his YouTube channel.
The duo of Pujara and Kohli played a lot of Test cricket together and made many memorable partnerships. They put together a total of 3,513 runs from 83 innings at an average of 43.37 with the help of seven hundreds and 18 fifties. Kohli and Pujara also forged a record-breaking stand of 226 runs for the third wicket in 2016 against England in Visakhapatnam. Kohli declared his red-ball retirement in May this year.
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The former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin also stated that Pujara’s contributions are equal to those of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
“What did Cheteshwar Pujara stand for in Indian cricket? I said his contributions are no less than Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Obviously, a lot of people talk about their contributions. The attention is not there,” said Ashwin.
Pujara is the only batter from India to play more than 500 balls in a single Test innings. He achieved this feat in 2017 in a Test match against Australia in Ranchi as he faced 525 balls.
He also sustained 11 body blows when India managed to win a Test match at the Gabba during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21. The right-hand batter played 211 deliveries, making 56 runs, while he dominated the likes of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood.
After the retirement of Rahul Dravid, Pujara was the perfect No.3 batter for India. He had started as an opener too, but he fit into the one-down position like a missing piece of a puzzle. During India’s latest Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the young team tried different players at the same spot but couldn’t replicate Pujara’s success. The new skipper, Shubman Gill, experimented with his Gujarat Titans teammate, Sai Sudharsan, and senior batter Karun Nair.
