'Never...': Cheteshwar Pujara Sends Message On Day When India Suffer Top-order Batting Collapse With Video of His Training Session

It’s been well over a year since India Test star Cheteshwar Pujara last played an international match. It was the final of the ICC World Test Championship between India and Australia at the Oval with Pujara losing his spot after managing 14 and 27 during the contest which his team went on to lose by a big margin.

With India seemingly moving on from the once Test mainstay, Pujara though has continued played competitive cricket. He has been representing his domestic team Saurashtra and registering his presence in the County Championship where he played for Sussex earlier this year.

India’s home season got underway on Thursday with the Chennai Test against Bangladesh. It wasn’t an ideal start though as their top-order comprising captain Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli failed to show up with each of them falling to Bangladesh’s young fast bowler Hasan Mahmud.

However, by the end of the day, the story had changed thanks to Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s record partnership of 195 runs for the seventh wicket that put India in a comfortable spot.

On the day, India were rescued by their lower middle-order batters, Pujara, who once was a regular at no. 3, shared a clip of him batting in the nets with the caption, “Never stand still!”.

Reports have indicated that the team management has moved on from Pujara meaning we might have seen the last of him in India’s Test whites. He wasn’t picked in any of the four squads for the ongoing Duleep Trophy either – a red-ball competition that kickstarted India’s domestic season.

The 36-year-old will surely go down in history as one of India’s finest Test batters. He played 103 Tests and scored 7195 runs that include 19 centuries and 35 half-centuries.

Pujara will return to action for Saurashtra with the Ranji Trophy – India’s top-flight domestic red-ball competition. In first-class cricket, he has accumulated a whopping 20,899 runs in 271 matches at an average of 52.11

Pujara has struck 65 centuries and 80 fifties in his FC career so far.