Cheteshwar Pujara - Time to prove his mettle!

Cheteshwar Pujara is apparently a very happy man. He has got a golden chance to prove his worth as a leader, apart from displaying his own cricketing skills. After all, he is going to lead India A against the confident West Indies A in an unofficial three-Test series. Obviously, Pujara’s responsibility has doubled in view of the fact that India would like to extract revenge for the lost one-day series. Pujara, who was once termed as the run machine of Saurashtra, will definitely hope to lead India A towards victory.

Up until now, in international matches while playing for India A, Pujara has always scored big. His first class record speaks volumes about the talent he possesses. In his 81 first class matches, he has scored 6633 runs with the average of 60.30. This includes 21 centuries and 25 half-centuries.

Now, let us have a quick look at his background. Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara was born on 25 January 1988 in Rajkot, Gujarat. Incidentally, his father A S Pujara also played first class cricket for Gujarat. This right hand batsman is representing Saurashtra since 2005. He played for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL from 2008 to 2010. Thereafter, he joined Royal Challengers Bangalore and has been a very important member of their squad.

Pujara basically relies on his solid batting technique and he has got the temperament to play long innings. Someone had once correctly defined that while Virat Kohli has got the aggression of Sehwag, Pujara’s style is more like Dravid and Laxman to some extent.

In the year 2012, he scored three Test centuries – including a marvellous innings of 206 not out. In 2013, he has scored another one. While playing in the Ranji trophy, he once scored a double century followed by a triple century. Owing to his composed style of batting, he has become the second fastest Indian to reach the 1000-run mark (the first being Vinod Kambli). This shows his tremendous capability and commitment. His Test average is 65.55 and first class average is 60.30.

Pujara times his strokes very well, never looks to be in unwarranted hurry and yet doesn’t let go of any chance to strike at the appropriate moment. I personally feel that his judgement of the ball is really superb and he is a cool batsman. It is very difficult to get him out once he is set. India A will most definitely be a better team under his leadership.

But the morale of the West Indies A team is high after defeating India A in the ODIs. So the captaincy skills of Pujara will be tested. He has a good bowling attack to rely on, including Dinda, Shami, Pandey and Parvez Rasool. The batting has also been boosted by the returning seniors.

Overall, the situation seems to be favouring Pujara. Although the competition for places in the Indian team is high, we can say that Pujara has already displayed that he has all the right ingredients. I think he can be a long term solution to India’s top order problems. With a little bit of luck and hard work, clubbed with skilful captaincy, perhaps Cheteshwar Pujara can stake his claim to fetch a permanent berth in the national team – be it Tests or ODIs . We wish him good luck, as the possibilities are seemingly unlimited.