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Cheteshwar Pujara recently announced his retirement from all forms of the game after failing to make an appearance for the Indian team since the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia in 2023. Pujara, who had made his debut for the Men in Blue in 2010, was an integral part of their Test set-up for over a decade. He played over 100 Tests for the side and was undoubtedly one of India's best modern-day batters when it comes to red-ball cricket.
Though many felt that Pujara still had some Test cricket left in him, former India batter Robin Uthappa claimed that the 37-year-old 'overextended' his stay in the format and could have called time on his career after he wasn't picked for the Border-Gavaskar series 2024/25 against Australia. Notably, Pujara decided to retire from all forms of the game after he wasn't picked for both the England tour and Duleep Trophy.
“I think he overextended his stay a little bit. I think it was communicated to him that he will not be considered anymore and this England tour was the final straw. It seemed very bleak for Indian cricket to go back to him, Rahane, at the start of a new cycle. I reckoned when he didn’t get picked in that Australia tour, he could have called it time. But obviously, it is very hard," Uthappa said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Uthappa also recalled an untold story about Pujara from the 2009/10 domestic season. Through the tale, the former highlighted the latter's passion for batting and remaining unbeaten on the crease.
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“I remember it was a first-class game in 2009-10, it was Karnataka versus Saurashtra and he got a triple hundred. He was batting 200-odd end of day’s play. I went early in the morning to have a hit. This guy comes and rocks up at 7:30 in the morning after having scored a double hundred and batted the same amount of time that I batted before going into bat for the game. For him as a personality, he was obsessed with batting and being not out," Uthappa stated.
Pujara's numbers in international cricket
Meanwhile, Pujara played a total of 103 Tests and 5 ODIs in his international career. Though the batter failed to contribute much for India with the bat in white-ball cricket, many of his knocks in the red-ball format will never be forgotten by Indian fans. He called time on his career after scoring a total of 7195 runs in the longest format, including 19 centuries and 35 half-centuries. He was also a key figure in Saurashtra's side in domestic cricket and played a massive role in the team getting promoted from the Plate division to Elite division in Ranji Trophy.
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