Whether Cheteshwar Pujara Will Return Makes Less Sense Than Recollecting All He's Done For India
Cheteshwar Pujara during WTC Final 2023 (AP Photo)
Few things can be as miserable as to be recounting a career as if one were penning its obituary whilst the person and his deeds are very much alive and here amid us.
Which is why any reflection on Cheteshwar Pujara right now, the technically correct quality Test batsman who has massive regard from the fan if not a gigantic social media following, pinches and will for some time.
However, it’s important to emphasise that sentimental outbursts won’t bring him back any time soon into the Test fold.
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The beginnings
But before the bad days came along and bit the mild mannered man from Saurashtra, there were a number of days and periods where the right hander was shining akin to blooming sunshine.
One such date, besides several others, was the thirteenth of October back in 2010. On the final day of the 2nd Test against Australia at Bangalore, Pujara scored a maiden fifty in Test match cricket, a format that has since, been his lifeblood and Pujara, the keeper of its faith.
Interestingly, Pujara scored his first ever fifty at a captivating strike rate of 80.
The new wall #3
His 72 came just off 89 deliveries with a technique that seemed error proof.
Among his peers who took note of the youngster, then around 22, was a certain Rahul Dravid.
And despite many of us still largely polarised whether Pujara did actually replace India’s iconic wall at Number 3 and the debate can linger on for another few years, in that second inning, it was Pujara, not Dravid, who batted at the said position.
The Bangalorean would note the calmness and focus of a batsman who, in the years ahead, would guard India’s position from such a crucial position.
And here’s what Pujara has done in the years hence
He, in fact, beat Rahul Dravid’s record for facing the most number of deliveries in an individual inning, scoring a 202 against Australia off 525 deliveries. In so doing, he demonstrated a sense of timelessness at the crease and monk-like focus (the latter were to become a customary part of his batting approach), to break Australia’s back at Ranchi in 2017.
Pujara went on to compile well over 2,000 Test runs against Australia, scoring as on date, nearly a fourth of his 19 career centuries against a giant force of our game.
Moreover, Pujara would reach in the nearabouts of 2,000 Test runs even against England, having accumulated 1,778 runs (49 innings) against an opponent that’s nearly as world class as Pujara’s own side.
Three of Pujara’s Test hundreds lasted for over 450 minutes- these being the 204 v Australia in 2013, the 135 against England in 2012, and the unbeaten 145 against Sri Lanka in 2015.
The man with quintessential doggedness and an ocean-size patience spent over 450 minutes in compiling 8 Test centuries of the 19 he has scored so far.
A tamer of Australia, a defier of pressure
Each of these hundreds were struck in the 2012-18 cycle, where Pujara appeared as the most rational, if also, capable answer to an India in its post Dravid-era.
Besides becoming just the thirteenth ever Indian to play 100 Test matches, Pujara would grind Australia with definitive performances in the 2018-19 series.
It would turn out to be a series, where his centuries at Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney made him the talk of the town in both Australia and India, responsible for two of the largest cricketing viewing audiences on the planet. But rather importantly, the returns from the bat - 521 runs from 4 Tests- quite simply heightened the interest surrounding the quiet unassuming batsman.
Being a soft target?
His solidity, vigilance and desire to stay put silenced the caustic critic’s dumb opinion making that conveniently forgot everything else about him and targeted his strike rate.
In the last three seasons or so, this agonisingly repetitive notion that Pujara “just likes to bat slow”, as if it was on purpose and in some weird anti-Indian stance, did more harm than good to the batsman who now, at the back his failure at the World Test Championship final, seems the fall guy.
But who made him that? Was it Pujara’s own failures; his batting average nosediving from 49.8 to 43.6 in the last 55 innings?
And if not, was it this extremely unpardonable desire from the part of the game and its fans that’s quick to laud a knock featuring an outburst of heavy hitting but even quicker to cast a blind eye to a knock based on skill and temerity?
For Pujara, who hardly ever played the IPL, has little to do with T20 and is likely to ever forge a connection with the format won’t really be the man to fire the breezy cameos and those firepower innings.
But if a game is on the line and the match situation demands one to play the saviour, then maybe even a Virat would place his bet on the Rajkot-born.
Just like a Pant and others around depended on Pujara, who kept taking one body blow after another by the Aussies, during a cataclysmic, roller coaster and eventually hair raising moment of cricketing triumph for India at the Gabba.
Why Pujara is second to none in his own ways
Pujara got out while playing an unusual shot in WTC Final vs AUS (AP Photo)
While recollections of that emotional January 2021 victory still bring back fond memories of Pant sending a Hazlewood ball to the boundary; the die-hard Test lover has equally lauded Pujara, who proved almost unmovable during his 211-ball-stay at the wicket that fetched India 56- and ultimately winning- runs.
In a career spanning over a decade, Pujara has given us smiles if not the impish joy of a modern day T20 swashbuckler hitting a ramp shot. He has excelled on the basis of patience and reminded us that it is still, in an age of Bazball, trolls, mind games and endless shenanigans on the 22 yards, the biggest quality required to succeed.
But now it appears that it is this very quality that the fan who always wants more, has run out of and maybe even the Indian cricket system.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow and a slightly more complex reality of India for Pujara to deal with than the rickety pace and awkward bounce that he’s duly handled, whether that of Roach, Jansen, Starc, Hazlewood, Morkel, Rabada, Anderson or Broad.
Will he ever return or won’t he can eat up the mind of those to whom he mattered for several more days. But what makes perfect sense is to rewind back to the days where Pujara stood tall amid pressure only to shine brightly for India like that blooming sunshine.
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