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'Whenever Opportunity Comes...' - Cheteshwar Pujara Not Giving Up On India Comeback

image-lslfgqfgCheteshwar Pujara has played 103 Tests [X.com]

By opting to blood in youngsters amidst a vacuum of experience ahead of the final three Tests against England, India's brave senior selection committee and the management, led by skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid, made their stance clear on the stoic Cheteshwar Pujara. 

However, one of India's influential Test match greats says it hasn't left any dent on his spirits as he continues to believe a comeback is still very much on. Pujara, who hasn't been recalled since is sacking after the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) last June, says "I will be ready" whenever the opportunity presents itself. 

Pujara has been in tremendous form for Saurashtra since his return to the Ranji Trophy earlier in the season. The defiant marathon man of Indian cricket has compiled 673 runs in his six matches, including a double hundred versus Jharkhand and a century on a turning pitch against Rajasthan. 


Fire Continues To Burn In Cheteshwar Pujara 

The recent hundred versus Rajasthan came on the heels of India's Test match selection and raised talks of Pujara making a comeback in the squad. Even English spectators and touring journalists felt Pujara bolstering the understrength and inexperienced batting line-up in his home town Rajkot for the third Test could be the right way to go. 

But even as the selectors seemed to have moved on fully, Pujara wasn't willing to accept fate and said he would wait for his chances while producing a truckload of runs in first-class cricket for the Ajit Agarkar-led panel to not ignore him. 

"My proudest moment was to represent the Indian team. There is a pride when I walk out to bat for India, there is nothing bigger than that. That feeling that you can win games for your country, that you can make the difference – call it X-factor or a player who will fight for the country to win a game, there is no greater feeling than that on earth," Pujara said in an interview with Indian Express. 


"Whenever the opportunity to play for India comes, I will be ready to play with that passion and pride that’s needed and with which I have always played. That will never change."

The great No.3, who has made 7,195 runs in 103 Tests for India, will be next seen in action via Saurashtra's final league round fixture against Manipur from Friday (February 16).