How to dismiss Cheteshwar Pujara? It was the million dollar question Rohit Sharma and his Mumbai teammates discussed the most in a huddle during their junior cricket days, as they knew the Saurashtra batter could ground them to the dust over two or three days of persistent batting.
Rohit reminisced that the wicket of Pujara was often the difference between a victory or defeat for his team in age-group matches, the early signs of the doughty batter who made 7,195 runs at 43.60 with 19 tons and 35 fifties from 103 Tests.
“I still remember, team meetings only revolved around him (on) how to get him out, and if we don't get him out, probably we'd lose the game,” Rohit said at the launch of Pujara’s wife Puja’s book ‘The Diary of a Cricketer’s Wife’ here on Thursday.
The former India skipper quipped that his looks would change so much after playing against Pujara under the sun that even his mother would fret a bit.
“All I remember is that when I used to go to the ground, when I was 14-years-old, and when I came back in the evening, the colour of my face would be completely different,” he said.
“Because he used to bat all day and we used to field in the sun for (even) 2-3 days. I still remember that my mother asked me a couple of times that when you go to play from home, you look different and when you come home, after a week or 10 days, you look different.
“I would say, ‘mom, what do I do? There's a batsman by the name of Cheteshwar Pujara. He's been batting for three days'... so that is the first impression that we had of him,” Rohit added.
Rohit credited Pujara for playing more than 100 Tests after suffering ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries to both his knees right at the start of his career.
“(It was) such a big injury (and) such a bad injury. Both his ACL were gone. For any cricketer, leave alone if you are not an athlete or not playing any sport, for a sportsman it's very, very tough if you lose both your ACL,” he said.
“We used to tease him about his running technique and all that but he managed to play more than 100 Test matches for India after that, a lot of credit goes to him for how he managed it. Great amount of dedication and passion he had to play the sport,” Rohit said.
Pujara rated the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home against Australia in 2016-17 as the toughest series he was involved in his career.
“I can mention one incident, in 2017, when India was bowled out for 200 odd runs against Australia, that was one of the toughest Test series I've been part of,” Pujara said.
“This was the second Test match at Bangalore, and the team didn't do well in the first innings, and we were again in a spot of bother in the second innings, but I spoke to Anil (Kumble) bhai about how to tackle Nathan Lyon, and he came up with a technical suggestion.” On his part, the former India coach Kumble said he was only trying to second-guess the bowler.
“Because I was second guessing the bowler, and I got it right after the 115 (read 132) Test matches, so it was all about guess work,” Kumble said.
“I would tell Pujji (Pujara) that, look, I can only tell you about how a bowler is thinking and what would put pressure on a bowler when you as a batter would be reacting and that was the only thing,” he added.
Both Pujara and Rohit recalled the struggles made by their parents to support their careers.
Pujara said, “I lost my mom and I was 17. But the kind of support my parents gave me when I was young and to relive those moments, because she (Puja) has described this thing really, really well." “I still remember from my mother's advice that what you do in your life, and she was very confident that I'll end up playing for the country, she told me that you have to be a good human being first.” Rohit said, “Since the day I was born to now, the support of my mother and father has been immense. I know the sacrifices they've made for me and my brother to do what we needed to do in our lives.
“But when you sit back and think about it, you really appreciate, you know what the parents go through. When you're at that age, you don't realise, but now, when I sit back and think about it, you understand,” he said.
