Cheteshwar Pujara scored more than 7,000 runs at an average of almost 44 in Test matches. For the better part of his career, he averaged close to 50. But neither these figures nor the 19 hundreds and 35 half centuries adequately capture the value of what he did on the cricket pitch. They do not tell us how Pujara soaked up pressure at one end, at times tiring out opposing bowlers, and laid the ground for the more exuberant stroke players to take the game away for India. Perhaps the only remaining specialist in the longest form of the game, he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Sunday. Pujara had not been in the scheme of things for the country’s selectors since the World Test Championship final two years ago and has donned the TV commentator’s hat in recent times. If the depth of knowledge he has shown in his new job is any indication, youngsters in the domestic circuit, particularly Saurashtra for whom he turned up for close to two decades — a 99 in what turned out to be his second last game — will miss observing from close quarters how an innings is built up ball by ball, over by over, session by session. They will miss learning from India’s greatest team man, at least in the last decade and a half.
A player, however, needs more than guts to achieve what the man from Saurashtra has. Pujara was no stroke-less wonder. In an era of players who preferred punching the ball, he was among the few bottom-handed technicians who preferred running his wrists with a low grip, while staying very close to the cherry — probably a carryover from the tutelage he received on Rajkot’s dusty pitches. Very early in his career, it was evident that the Saurashtra youngster was earmarked to fill the large shoes of Rahul Dravid at number 3 in the batting order. And like his predecessor, Pujara would often capitalise on watchful starts by rocking back to cut or pull or skip down the wicket to essay his trademark flick through mid-wicket or even play the ramp short to the faster men.
Pujara’s best came during Virat Kohli’s captaincy. And King Kohli too thrived in the company of a comrade who made the long haul his calling card. Nathan Lyon was perhaps conveying the sentiments of countless frustrated bowlers when he asked Pujara, during India’s historic series win in Australia in 2018, “Aren’t you bored of batting?”. In that series, Pujara scored more than 500 runs and faced more than 12,00 balls — the next best, Kohli faced 500 balls fewer and scored about 230 runs fewer. And Rishabh Pant played 470 balls and scored 350 runs. The dashers clearly owe some debt to Pujara.
It would be wrong, however, to ignore statistics completely in telling the Pujara story. One needs to dig deeper to capture the weight of his scores. For when Pujara did well, India’s chances of coming up trumps increased. Thirteen of his 19 hundreds came in victories. A monumental 60 per cent of his runs were scored in a winning cause — Virat Kohli with 52 per cent, Rahul Dravid 39 per cent and Sachin Tendulkar with 38 per cent were the next best. In Indian cricket’s history, only Dravid and Tendulkar have faced more balls than the Saurashtrian.
There were often magic balls, destined to cut short his innings after a long vigil. They seemed to increase in the last three or four years of his career — he made only one century in his last 35 tests. But the Pujara impact was evident even in the winter of his career. The pain he took from the bolts unleashed by Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Starc, facing 211 balls, scoring 56, is as indelible a part of the Brisbane heist story of 2021 as the strokeplay of Pant, Shubman Gill and Washington Sundar.
Who knows — the recent accolade-earning draw in England could well have been a victory had India had a number 3 of Pujara’s class. Perhaps this was the only chink in the batting armoury on that tour. Gill and Gautam Gambhir’s team is built on stroke players. It would give anything to have a sheet anchor like Pujara.
kaushik.dasgupta@expressindia.com
