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Cheteshwar Pujara is on brink of stepping on a milestone as he will featuring in his landmark 100th Test when India will take on Australia in the second match of the Border-Gavaskar series at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Friday (February 17). Pujara will become only the 13th Indian player to reach the 100 matches milestone in Tests when he takes the field for the second Test.
It didn't come easy for India's Test specialist as Pujara's journey behind playing 99 Tests has been full of ups and downs. There came a point when Pujara looked running out of steam but his resilience and grit turned it all around and he managed to revive his Test career yet again.
Right ahead of the second Test against Australia, Pujara revealed reason behind skipping Indian Premier League 2022 and also opened up on his career's turning point when the chips were down. After putting up a so and so performance in South Africa last year, Pujara was axed from the India's Test squad for the Sri Lanka series in 2022. But his gritty decision to not stop and play county cricket which played a significantly instrumental role in resurrecting his career.
“As a cricketer having played little bit of white ball cricket – saurashtra, Sussex, tried playing few shots , that has opened my mindset and that has helped me be successful in Tests recently as well,” Pujara said in the pre-match press conference on Thursday (February 16).
“Conscious decision to not have my name in IPL last year, I wanted to play county to prepare for the one off test in England,” he added.
Pujara had made his Test debut in 2010 against Australia in Bengaluru in the second Test making 4 and 72 in a winning effort. Pujara soon went on to become of India’s mainstay in the middle-order in the longest format and took over the mantle at No.3 after Rahul Dravid retirement.
In 99 Tests, Pujara has scored 7021 runs at 44.15 with 19 hundreds and 34 fifties with a best of 206* which came against England at Ahmedabad in 2012. He sits 7th in India’a all–time list of players with most hundreds – only behind Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Azharuddin.
Pujara also talked about the importance of mental strength which kept him going in the time of adversity.
“Patience does not come on its own, you need mental strength for that. Preparations is the key, I scored runs at junior cricket, age group cricket. It requires hard work over a period of time and I think when you focus on your game, eventually you will succeed,” Pujara said.
“To do well in test cricket – I do yoga, meditation, work on my fitness, detach yourself what is being spoken about you social media TV, even if it is positive things, so I try and do all that.” Aswhin recently spoke about me being stubborn. So for me, you will have to stick to your method and have to have discipline,” he concluded.
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