He isn’t armed with the tattoos that adorn the bodies of the average Indian cricketer in today’s times. He doesn’t have a multi-million IPL contract – no IPL contract in the last four years, in fact. He doesn’t have the social media following of his peers either, weighing in at 2 million Twitter followers to his captain’s 27.4 million.
You won’t get outlandish statements out of him at press meets, even in the immediate high of a glorious success. You’ll find him smile for the fans instead, with the patience one has been accustomed to when he wields the bat.
Cheteshwar Pujara is no superstar. Cheteshwar Pujara has just won India the first Test of a series in Australia for the first time in 12 attempts spanning 71 years.
Dravid 2003; Pujara 2018
The similarities were always there, weren’t they? And they went beyond the commonality of being India’s number three.
But until very recently, Pujara’s likening to Rahul Dravid was one limited to personality and perception – on-field numbers and contributions to Indian Test cricket paled in comparison.
Prior to the third Test of India’s tour of England, at Nottingham, Pujara averaged a meagre 26.32 in 21 Tests outside Asia – and had crossed 50 only five times in 37 innings. He’s gone on to surpass that mark four times in India’s last four such outings.
At Nottingham, in India’s only win on the tour, Pujara’s laborious second innings 72 played a vital role in setting England an improbable fourth innings target. But his effort would be overshadowed by Virat Kohli’s 103, with the Indian captain scoring a round 200 runs in the game.
In the very next Test, at Southampton, came a potential tour de force: a painstaking unbeaten 132 even as the rest of the batsmen came a cropper to give India a first innings lead. A botched fourth innings chase, however, meant Pujara’s heroics went in vain.
The success, individual and team, at Adelaide gives him a first: more than eight years into his career, Pujara has earned a maiden player-of-the-match award outside Asia.
He followed his predecessor as India’s No. 3 in another way – magnanimity in his hour of glory. “Ultimately to win the match, the credit goes to the bowlers who got them out for below 250,” said Pujara after being presented the prize.
No Strike on Strike Rates Now
The comparison to Dravid runs deeper, at the heart of which lies the lurking thread of a single factor – strike rate. While in Dravid’s case, the hovering question marks over not ‘getting a move on’ were limited to limited overs cricket, Pujara finds himself batting in the post-T20 era of the game.
Stonewalling – or an ability to grind, to forget the scoreboard and bat for time – is a trait not as reverred today as it was a decade ago. But it’s a virtue that tends to win Test matches in alien conditions.
Which is why Pujara, fortunately, doesn’t find himself judged on parameters he was until as recently as two years ago.
He faced the axe in West Indies in 2016 after scores of 16 off 67 at Antigua and 46 off 159 at Kingston, only for Anil Kumble to jump up in his defense. “From my point of view, strike rates are only relevant to bowlers in Test cricket, not batsmen,” the then-Indian coach had set ahead of a long season at home that followed.
The biggest credit to Pujara perhaps lies in his ability to hang on to his goods, to not be plagued by insecurity. His strike rate in 30 Tests since the ouster in WI reads 45.71, more than one striking point below his career strike rate of 46.89.
Perhaps he realised, warming the bench at Gros Islet, that the gross injustice would be undone in the time to come. That there would come a time, on the road two years ahead, where his ‘boring’ virtues would be a necessity for a team hungry to end a past of travelling woes.
Shifting Gears, Yet Staying the Same
That’s not to say he allows himself to get stuck in a rut; at Adelaide on Day 1, Pujara kept India alive in the contest by striking at nearly 50% better than his career scoring rate once he was accompanied by a lengthy Indian tail.
When the visitors escaped a perilous 127/6 to finish on an eventually match-winning 250, Pujara hit 88 off the 123 remaining runs at a strike rate of nearly 70.
India were aided further by that ‘blitz’ not giving Pujara a false sense of bravado. In the second innings, with batting out time an essential requirement, the stonewaller returned to blunt a relentless Aussie bowling attack on the third evening and fourth morning – top-scoring again, with 71 off 204 balls.
Where does the resolve come from? You’ve seen exhibits of it at various junctures of an eight-year international career: at Johannesburg in 2013, Colombo in 2015, Ranchi in 2017, most notably. But this excerpt from a conversation with ESPNcricinfo’s The Cricket Monthly last year gives a clearer peep into the mind of Che Pujara:
“When you start playing shots, that means your game is not capable enough to play the Test format. You are trying to survive rather than understand the situation and play accordingly. When you start playing shots, it means you are under pressure as a batsman and you are not able to handle that situation. When you defend confidently you know you are in command, you are on top of the bowler, and he doesn't have a chance to get you out. You will ultimately score runs when he bowls a loose ball.”
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