"I gave Pujara a name after that series" - R Ashwin's massive revelation after Cheteshwar Pujara announces retirement

Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin revealed that he gave Cheteshwar Pujara a nickname inspired by the popular show, 'Game of Thrones', following his heroics in the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar series in Australia. The recently retired batter was the leading run-scorer of the series, amassing 521 runs at an average of 74.42 to help India record a historic 2-1 triumph.

Pujara began the tour with a sublime hundred and a fifty at the Adelaide Oval in India's narrow 31-run win. After a rare blip in Perth, he followed up with two more colossal hundreds in Melbourne and Sydney to cap off the tour in a dominant fashion.

During the drawn series finale, Pujara scored a mammoth 193-run knock, facing 373 deliveries in the process. His efforts helped India put on 622-7 in the first innings, nearly guaranteeing the series.

Ashwin recalled how the Australian bowlers were frustrated after failing to take Pujara's wicket, which led to him christening him with the nickname, 'The White Walker'.

"The 2018-19 tour of Australia has to be a defining point in Pujara's career. He had made a double hundred during England's tour of India in 2012, but the 2018-19 Australia series, it was a memorable one because the Australia bowlers were not able to get him out. In the last Test in Sydney, the bowlers literally had to tell Pujara to please get out. Literally, it went there," Ashwin said in a tribute video on his YouTube channel.

"I gave Pujara a name after that series, we had a good relationship, like we used to pull each others legs. He was pulling my leg on commentary also recently. That is the kind of relationship we have, so the nickname I gave him, inspired by Game of Thrones, was 'The White Walker'. Literally after that tour, Pujara was the White Walker of Indian cricket, if not the world cricket," he continued.

Pujara was named player of the series for his contributions in the series. It marked the only time he registered over 500 runs in a series, with his second-best effort coming during the home series against England in 2012, where he scored 438 runs.

"That is a bit of a concern" - R Ashwin on the contribution of certain players being overlooked compared to stars

R Ashwin noted how Cheteshwar Pujara's contributions were not highlighted enough, and were lost amongst the praise that star players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma consistently received from fans and pundits.

"Whenever we talk about Indian cricket, it is easy to talk about Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma. Even in the past, it was Sachin Tendulkar, I mean he was an icon, but players like Pujara don't come around quite often. But, we don't talk about them too much. That is a bit of a concern," Ashwin added.

Pujara bowed out of Indian cricket after his previous international appearance came over two years ago during the 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia.