GREAT CAREER

 

IT WAS an inevitable call for Cheteshwar Pujara to take at this point of his career. He had been out of the main cricket ecosystem for too long. And as the young and gritty bunch of cricketers carved a niche in England series, it was time for Pujara to hang his boots. The difficult decision came on Sunday as the Saurashtra run machine announced his retirement from international cricket. With Pujara's departure from the national scene, Indian cricket has witnessed the end of a sterling career of a determined fighter who was always ready to put his body on line for the team's cause. The exit of Cheteshwar Pujara has now forced a rewind of his solid knocks that looked boring but came with immense value. He always chose to use defence as his first weapon to tire down opposition bowlers but people always miss his knack of raising the tempo at will without any aggression.

 

It served Pujara and India really well in many series where the team was caught in a tricky phase of guarding wickets without handing upper hand to the opponents. The middle order batsman had the tedious task of building on a good start or stemming a rot after early collapse. And almost every time, Pujara held the innings together. Right from his debut against Australia Pujara displayed a tight technique and cool head. In the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar's double hundred in that Test in Bangalore, Pujara held his fort with a fighting half century. It was a signal of the arrival of an old-school grafter who was untouched by the growing popularity of Twenty20 cricket. That Pujara maintained it all through his career shows the tenacity of his mind and excellence of his technique. Always touted as a replacement of Rahul Dravid, the Saurashtra captain blended resilience and smart aggression really well in his 103 Tests career to emerge as Mr Dependable pretty soon in career.

 

His 72 in debut was the first glimpse of the new Wall of Indian cricket. In later years, Pujara exemplified courage and tenacity to mark a permanent place in the Test team. Hundreds and double centuries followed but what set him apart was his ability to withstand pressure and pave an escape route for the team quite regularly. Though subsequent years saw fans of slam-bang cricket criticising Pujara as a strokeless wonder, the aficionados knew the value he put on his wicket. It was the real gain for Team India as they started using Pujara's dour defence to build foundation of some famous overseas victories. It was Pujara's 56 in the famous Gabba Test that helped a second string Indian side carve its historic win.

 

For all the scorn heaped upon Pujara, his fourth-inning grimness was the stroke of brilliance at in Brisbane. He endured a barrage of hostile bowling, took blows on the body but guarded his wicket to shield the novices in the line-up. This characteristic of Pujara's batting was smartly used by the team, especially in the overseas series. He used this ability to present a dead bat quite efficiently in the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) to blunt many attacks. Putting a premium on his wicket, Pujara ensured that India had one end secured at all times even as the free flowing batsmen took their chances. However, in the end the same dourness seems to have become his undoing as the selectors looked for other options after a few failures by Pujara.