Cheteshwar Pujara was never allowed to play with tennis ball

After a sparkling debut at Bangalore in 2010, Cheteshwar Pujara is now the backbone of the Indian Test team. He has taken the No. 3 position like a fish to water. While he isn’t as pleasing to the eye like his idol and former Indian No. 3 Rahul Dravid was, his batting is built on the same attributes of Dravid: discipline, patience, concentration and grittiness.

Pujara had a great run in Test cricket after a memorable debut. An injury forced him out of action for a year before he came back in 2012. He started with a brilliant 159 against New Zealand at home, which was his first Test century. A barren run in 2014 resulted into a brief hiatus from the XI but the Saurashtra batsman wasn’t going to be sidelined for long because of his penchant for getting big scores. The 29-year old played a big part in India’s successful home season as he emerged the highest run-scorer for India across 13 home Tests.

Never batted in gully cricket

In the latest episode of the show What the Duck, Pujara reveals how his father was responsible for making him understand the significance of discipline. Almost every cricketer learns the trade by first playing gully cricket but Pujara was never allowed to bat against the tennis ball. His father thought that because tennis ball has a different bounce than a cricket ball, Pujara would be better off not facing it as it might have affected his technique. The right-hander was forced to play only as a wicket keeper in tennis ball cricket but was not allowed to bat.

No Holi, Diwali either

Pujara also spoke on the show about how he wasn’t allowed to celebrate Holi and Diwali – two biggest festivals of India. His father, again, believed that playing with colours and lighting crackers might result in an unwanted injury to the middle order batsman. Hence Pujara stayed indoors during these festivals whilst kids of his age were busy celebrating.

Ever since Pujara tied the knot with Puja in 2013, she has been a pillar of strength for the Rajkot-born cricketer. Not the baton carried by Pujara’s father is carried by Puja, who makes sure her hubby stays disciplined despite being a Test superstar. She understands the game deeply after spending four years with the right-hander and even rebukes him by saying “who gets out to off-spinners like that?”

Marathon innings which broke a record

Pujara recently made headlines for becoming the first cricketer from India to face more than 500 balls in a Test innings. He faced 525 balls in his innings of 202 against Australia in Ranchi, breaking his idol Dravid’s 13-year record of facing 495 balls. He concedes that an Australian cricketer had pleaded him to get out fearing that his team would need wheelchairs if he keeps going on. Pujara said that he never realised that he went past an Indian record until his teammates started applauding from the players’ balcony.

After 48 Tests, Pujara has 3798 runs at 51.32 runs per innings. Currently, he has the best average in the Indian Test team which is a testimony to his quality. He also has 11 hundreds to his name.