Boria Majumdar
Late American playwright John Patrick had once said: “Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable.” Cheteshwar Pujara’s greatest strength is knowing his limitations. It’s an attribute that goes unrecognized. But it’s a vital part of a human being’s mental make-up. Knowing what you can do and where you stand.
This was best evident when he described his approach to Nathan Lyon in 2021, someone he had trouble against in 2017. “To be honest, I had issues with Nathan Lyon when he toured India in 2017. I was finding it difficult to deal with the spin, and Anil bhai had helped me plan differently for him. Don’t ask me the details, for I wouldn’t be able to share them, but it was Anil bhai who helped me evolve a plan for Lyon. Even after Adelaide (where India was all out for 36), Anil bhai sent me a text, and it helped me counter Lyon right through the series. As a team we knew Lyon is one of their spearheads and it was important for us to neutralise him and I am glad our strategy worked and he wasn’t able to do much damage right through the series,” said Cheteshwar in a conversation soon after the 2021 Australia tour.
Cheteshwar Pujara can never be Rohit Sharma, for he doesn’t have Rohit’s range of strokes. But when it comes to putting in line both mind and body, the man from Rajkot is second to none. On January 19 2021 he knew he had to survive the first two hours at the Gabba if India wanted to turn what till then looked like an improbable victory into a reality. To add to his challenges, on one side of the track there were cracks, which had been created as the match had gone on and the deliveries had started misbehaving frequently.
“It was tough, but I knew I had a job at hand. My game plan was simple on Day 5. We didn’t want to lose wickets in the first session because if Australia had to win the Test, they needed early wickets. It’s okay to be hit, for to stay on that pitch you needed to take those body blows. One particular end had variable bounce, and the ball misbehaved if it hit the cracks. If I tried to get on top of the ball like we do in normal circumstances, it could fly off the glove or the bat handle towards slips or gully,” Pujara had explained later.
And then he said something that left us stunned. “The choice was between taking some blows on the body or getting out. To tell you bluntly, I had to choose between being in pain and getting out. I chose pain for I needed to be out there for India and help my team either draw or win the game.”
Once Cheteshwar reached home, Arvind could hardly believe what he saw. “When he opened his T-shirt, I saw black spots everywhere. Those were blood clots and he could still manage a smile. My boy has always been a tough cookie.”
Since he knew that the balls rearing inwards had danger written all over them, he chose the ugly route. For his fans, it was an alpha-male act, and for sceptics—lack of range.
His critics might say that a set batsman, whether it’s Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill or Rishabh Pant, they would all play the pull shot to such balls. For Cheteshwar, however, it is different, for he depends primarily on three shots—the square cut, the cover drive and the on-drive. For every Lionel Messi with the aura and grace that he exhibits, one needs a Jordi Alba; for every Robert Lewandowski that Bayern Munich recruits, the balance is brought by a Joshua Kimmich.
For India, Cheteshwar brings that balance. For 100 Test matches now he has done so.