Cheteshwar Pujara, a stalwart of Indian Test cricket for nearly 13 years and arguably the last of the ‘Test specialists,’ announced his retirement from all forms of the game. Marking the end of a distinguished career, Pujara, 37, made the announcement via social media. He debuted against Australia in Oct 2010, scoring 72 not out off 89 balls, and played his final Test in the 2023 World Test Championship final against the same opponents at The Oval.
“As a little boy from the small town of Rajkot, along with my parents, I set out to aim for the stars; and dreamt to be a part of the Indian cricket team. Little did I know then that this game would give me so much - invaluable opportunities, experiences, purpose, love, and above all a chance to represent my state and this great nation.
Pujara was part of a dominant Indian Test team along with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and R Ashwin, achieving notable victories. With Pujara retiring on the back of the Test retirements of Rohit and Kohli in May and Ashwin in Dec last year, an era is slowly coming to an end in Indian cricket. Marked as the heir apparent to Rahul Dravid at No.3 from a very early age because of his water tight defence and ability to bat time, Pujara scored 7,195 Test runs at an average of 43.60, including 19 hundreds and 35 fifties, positioning him eighth among India’s leading Test run-scorers. At home, he amassed 3,838 runs at an average of 52.58.
In First-Class cricket, Pujara scored 21,301 runs in 278 matches at an average of 51.82, with 66 hundreds and three triple hundreds, earning him the nickname the ‘Saurashtra run-machine’. Under the guidance of his father Arvind, Pujara played a pivotal role in Saurashtra’s Ranji Trophy victories in the 2019-20 and 2022-23 seasons, and their run to the final in 2012-13 and 2015-16 seasons.
In the last two years, Pujara found himself more out of the Indian team than in and he even missed getting selected for West Zone in the Duleep Trophy. During his time away from international cricket, Pujara turned to commentary and was part of the broadcast team for the recent India-England series in the UK.