![How Pujara challenged Australia in Down Under [Source: @iAmRa27, @SkyCricket/X.com]](https://onecricketnews.akamaized.net/parth-editor/oc-dashboard/news-images-prod/1766427618495_Cheteshwar_Pujara_England_Australia_Ashes_2026_BGT.jpg?type=hq)
How Pujara challenged Australia in Down Under [Source: @iAmRa27, @SkyCricket/X.com]
Winning in Australia, one of the most difficult conditions to adapt to in Test cricket, has never been about noise. It has always been about nerves.
The pitches are hard, the bowlers relentless, and the days unforgivingly long. Australia does not blink. It waits. And if you flinch even once, the game is gone.
That is the lesson England have been reminded of once again in the Ashes 2025, a lesson Cheteshwar Pujara mastered years ago.
While England arrived with buzzwords, bravado and Bazball slogans, Pujara arrived in Australia with something far less glamorous but far more dangerous, which is patience.
When Pujara frustrated Australia during the prime BGT days
Across India’s two historic Border-Gavaskar Trophy wins in 2018-19 and 2020-21, Cheteshwar Pujara played a role that does not trend on highlight reels.
Instead of dominating bowlers in brief periods, he exhausted them, not just for one or two sessions, but he consumed their energy throughout days.
Over eight Tests in Australia, Pujara faced an astonishing 2186 deliveries. That number isn’t impressive because it looks big on paper.
It matters because it broke Australia’s rhythm. In matches India won or saved, he absorbed 1905 balls in just 11 innings, nearly 173 deliveries per innings.
Long enough for plans to fail. Long enough for patience to crack. Long enough for bowlers to feel human.
Australia kept asking the same questions with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon. Pujara answered with the same reply every time, ‘I’m still here.’
Adelaide. Melbourne. Sydney. Brisbane. Different venues, different years, same script. Cheteshwar Pujara stood like a wall while chaos unfolded around him.
Even on days he took more than 10 blows to his body just to save a Test, his runs mattered, yes. But the real damage was done in the mind. Overs dragged on. Fielders slouched. Bowlers searched for something new and found nothing.
How Bazball got it all wrong in Ashes 2025?
Now look at England in 2025. Bazball, at its core, is about intent. About taking the game forward. About not being afraid. It works in England, where conditions reward aggression, and bowlers tire quickly.
Australia is a different beast. Here, intent without discipline is just impatience dressed up as bravery.
England batted like a team trying to win sessions instead of matches. Drives flashed. Hooks flew. Collapses followed. They looked shocked when Australia didn’t blink back.
In first Test, England played a total of 70 overs (420 balls). In pink-ball Test, they improved to 151.4 overs (910 balls). Finally, in the Adelaide game, the visitors played over 100 overs in the second inning and a total of 1141 balls.
By the time England showed resistance, the series was already gone.
That is the difference Cheteshwar Pujara understood. Just look at the sheer differnece between the ball faced by one man alone versus an entire XI. Test cricket in Australia is not a sprint. It is a slow grind where someone has to volunteer for the longest day.
Someone has to take the blows so others can play later. Someone has to accept boredom as a weapon. Pujara was that someone.
His template was far from flashy. It was repeatable. Bat time. Trust defence. Let the game come to you. Drain the bowlers. Turn pressure back on Australia. Only then attack.
Final thought
England didn’t lose the Ashes because they lacked skill. They lost because they ignored history. Australia has been beaten here before. But only by teams willing to wait longer than the bowlers could endure.
The tortoise doesn’t always win the race. But in Australia, it almost always does.
And until teams remember what Cheteshwar Pujara taught the cricketing world, that patience is not passive, it is powerful, tours like England’s will keep ending the same way, loudly promised, quietly undone.
