Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara is an Indian cricket player. He currently leads Sussex County Cricket Club in the County Championship.

Life Story

Pujara was born on the 25th of January, 1988, in Rajkot, Gujarat. Cheteshwar Pujara’s age is 35 as of 2023. His zodiac sign is Aquarius.

Education

Cheteshwar Pujara earned his BBA degree from J.J. Kundalia College.

Family

He was born into a Hindu Lohana family. Both Pujara's father, Arvind, and his uncle, Bipin, played in the Ranji Trophy for Saurashtra. His father and his mother, Reema Pujara, saw his skills early on, and Cheteshwar trained with his father.

Cheteshwar Pujara’s wife’s name is Puja Pabari. The couple got married on February 12, 2013, in Rajkot. The couple welcomed their daughter, Aditi, on February 23, 2018.

Career

In 2005, Cheteshwar Pujara played in his first Under-19 Test for India against England. He started the game by scoring 211 runs, which helped India win by 137 runs. 

After getting three 50s in four innings at the Afro-Asia Under-19 Cup, Pujara was also put on the Indian team for the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He scored 349 runs in six innings, including three fifty-run innings and a century, for an average of 117, making him the Under-19 World Cup's top run-scorer. Pujara won the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup's Man of the Tournament award.

Domestic Cricket

At the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot, Cheteshwar Pujara struck 10 and 203 runs in just 221 balls to help Saurashtra defeat Madhya Pradesh by a score of 203 runs and advance to the quarterfinals of the 2012–13 Ranji Trophy.

He scored 37 and 352 (dismissed by off-spinner K. Gowtham in both innings) in his next game, a quarterfinal at Saurashtra University in Rajkot against Karnataka, to guarantee that Saurashtra advanced to the semifinal.

In 2013, when he was only 25 years old, Cheteshwar became the ninth player ever to get three first-class triple-centuries. In 2008/09, he scored 302* for Saurashtra against Orissa. In 2012/13, he scored 352 for Saurashtra against Karnataka, and in 2013/14, he scored 306* for India A against West Indies A. Pujara also holds the record for hitting three triple centuries in one month.

In the first three years of the IPL, he played for the Kolkata Knight Riders. He was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2011. In the fourth season of the IPL, he started for RCB until he hurt his knee in a game against the Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Cheteshwar Pujara was out of action for almost a year because of the injury. He didn't play domestic cricket again until the end of 2011.

He played a lone hand in the 2013–14 Ranji Trophy against Bengal at Eden Gardens, scoring 102, but his team was bowled out for 225 in response to Bengal's 303. He scored a huge 269 in the following match against Tamil Nadu in Chennai and combined with Jaydev Shah (195) for a 353-run partnership to set a score of 581/6 in opposition to Tamil Nadu's 565. In the 2014 IPL, Pujara started the season as Virender Sehwag's opening partner. 

Pujara scored 437 runs in four matches to top Saurashtra in scoring during the 2017–18 Ranji Trophy season. When he joined the team for the quarterfinal of the following competition, he assisted his team in chasing down a 372-run target against Uttar Pradesh, the highest ever in Ranji Trophy history, by scoring 67 not out in the fourth innings.

In his debut match as Sussex captain against Middlesex in the current 2022 County Championship in England, Cheteshwar Pujara struck a century in July 2022. It was his fifth century in this county season.

International Cricket

In 2010, Cheteshwar Pujara replaced Yuvraj Singh for the two-match home Test series against Australia. On October 9, 2010, in Bangalore, he made his series debut in the second Test after Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman both suffered injuries in the first Test.

In the First Test, Pujara filled in for Laxman and made two catches at silly point. Pujara made four runs in his first Test inning before being out by Mitchell Johnson on the third ball, LBW. As a result of a tactical adjustment made by captain MS Dhoni, Pujara was placed at number three in the second innings in place of Rahul Dravid. He scored 72 runs before being dismissed by Nathan Hauritz, with India needing 207 runs to win.

Pujara made a comeback into the team in August 2012 and scored 159 runs against New Zealand at Hyderabad to record his first international test century.

He was chosen to play four test matches for India against England. He scored an unbroken 206 runs in the opening game at Ahmedabad's Sardar Patel Stadium, helping his team win the game and take a 1-0 series lead. For his inning, he was also given the man of the match award. He maintained his strong play by scoring another hundred in the second game at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. In addition to scoring heavily in the following two games, he finished the series with 438 runs, following only England captain Alastair Cook in terms of run total.

In the second innings of the first Test against Bangladesh on December 16, 2022, Pujara became the first player in 1443 days to achieve a century in Test cricket. He finished the inning unbeaten with 102 runs.

As of April 2022, Pujara has made 19 centuries in international cricket, all of them in Test cricket.

Records

In a year, Cheteshwar Pujara scored more than 2,000 runs. In first-class games in 2013, he got 2,043 runs at 102.15. Only Chris Rogers made more in 2013 with 2,391 runs at 48.79 from 28 games. Together with Virat Kohli, he helped India to a 222-run partnership in their second innings, which was their greatest in a Test in South Africa. He reached 6000 runs in Tests, making him the eleventh Indian cricketer to do so.