With too many eyeballs and cricketing trolls waiting to devour on the flesh and skin of the Indian cricket team before the start of the Australian tour, It was always going to become a tour worth forgetting or worth remembering for the Indian Cricket fan.
Worth forgetting because of the Indian team’s dismal performances in the last one year of Test Cricket and Worth remembering coz It might just be the last time their Little Champion- Sachin Tendulkar entered the cricketing field.
In the midst of all the expectations from Dhoni and his comrades, one man who definitely seems to have gone unnoticed, having stood quietly in one corner is the Unflinching Cheteshwar Pujara.
A man, who kept knocking on the selection door for the last 5 years,finally getting his call up for the national team in 2012 for scoring not just hundreds, but big ones for his state side Saurashtra in domestic cricket.
With immediate expectations, of him being the successor of Rahul Dravid, Pujara had his critics scrutinizing his every move right from Day one.
What has been most gratifying about this collected cricketer is not just his composure in piling up runs steadily, but making each and every run that flew from his bat count. With the growing hoopla around Twenty20 cricket replacing One day cricket and with experts like SanjayManjrekar vouching for the shorter format going forward, here is a Cricketer who seems to have become the tranquilizer shot in Adrenaline rushed Indian team following their stints with Twenty20 cricket.
Nobody denies, that all these runs by Pujara have been amassed in Indian sub-continental conditions. He has yet to make himself count overseas. Has got out at the pull-shot thrice, making him more vulnerable to the stinging delivery on bouncy tracks abroad.
What cannot be forgotten is his innate ability to stay at the wicket for longer hours. His four centuries to date have totaled to 1800 minutes at the wicket , i.e.; almost 30 hours of Pujara slogging it out in the middle. With Test matches, getting over in 4 days’ time, here is a cricketer who is doing just more than scoring big runs in the middle in his bit to tire the opposition out. If ever the growing speculation of fielding three separate teams for the different formats comes to fruition, here is a Cricketer who definitely fits the bill, for more than one reason.
As Sunil Gavaskar in this year’s inaugural MAK Pataudi Lecture in February 2013, emphasized the importance of Ensuring Test Cricket remains the Pinnacle of the sport, Pujara could very well become the poster boy for the longer format inspiring the next generation which seems to be getting lured to the glitz and glitterati of the fast-food ( Twenty20) cricket.
Only time will tell, how long this young lad continues to serve the sport, which has just started to take his notice.
