Cheteshwar Pujara's decision to retire was influenced by his absence from IPL: Report

Cheteshwar Pujara announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Sunday. This came after the 37-year-old hadn't been able to make a comeback to India's Test set-up following his last appearance for the side which was against Australia in the 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) final. The batter called time on his career after featuring in 103 Tests and 5 ODIs for the Men in Blue.

This announcement came as a shock to many as despite not being called-back to the national team, Pujara was delivering at the domestic circuit. In his previous Ranji Trohy campaign, the batter ended up scoring 402 runs from just 7 matches. He also showed his class while featuring for Sussex in County Cricket, scoring 501 runs in six first-class matches.

Though Pujara hadn't featured in the IPL since 2014, a report in The Times of India has claimed that his absence from the league influenced his decision of retiring from all forms of the game. The 37-year-old only five seasons in IPL, featuring for the likes of Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kings XI Punjab. He scored a total of 390 runs from the 30 matches he played in the tournament, maintaining an underwhelming strike-rate of 99.74.

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“Perhaps if he were picked for the Test series in England, Pujara would have retired after the fifth Test. Look, one big factor in his retirement is also the fact that he doesn’t play in the IPL," a source told The Times of India.

“In that case, the Test snub and the Duleep Trophy snub meant there was little point in continuing to play domestic cricket for Saurashtra," the source added.

Pujara had made himself available for Ranji Trophy

Meanwhile, another reason why Pujara's retirement came as a surprise was because of the fact that he had made himself available to play for Saurashtra in the upcoming Ranji Trophy. The batter has a brilliant record at the domestic level and was expected to score quite a bit of runs in the coming season, however he will not be featuring in any tournament from now on.

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On the other hand, Pujara called time on his career after scoring 7195 runs in red-ball cricket. He may have not been able to contribute much for the Men in Blue when it comes to white-ball cricket, but some of his knocks in the longest format will never be forgotten especially by Indian fans.