Cheteshwar Pujara, the quintessential Test batter with a steely resolve and huge appetite for runs, will be missed Premium

Cheteshwar Pujara had largely been an integral part of India’s middle-order right from his debut against Australia in Bengaluru in 2010 till the WTC Final against Australia early this month. He has been dropped from the Test squad against West Indies.

Transition is in the air and when change is inevitable, an axe is just around the corner. Just as the BCCI’s press release announcing the Indian squads (Test and ODI series) for the West Indies tour, popped up through social media and in the email inboxes of cricket writers, it was time to accept that Cheteshwar Pujara had become the sacrificial lamb. The axe was on him, and this could be the last full stop on his storied international career or a mere comma, as India’s No. 3 batter in Tests had made a comeback after an omission in the recent past.

The quest for a new-mix, be it among batters and bowlers, in the fresh World Test Championship (WTC) cycle may have forced the Indian think-tank of coach Rahul Dravid and skipper Rohit Sharma along with the selectors to plump for young talent. India’s performance has been a tale of so-near-and-yet-so-far in two WTC finals — the latest being the loss against Australia — and the added ageism factor obvious in the squad’s core group hovering around the mid-30s mark meant that a cull, even if it was partial, was in the offing.

Pujara, despite a good turn with Sussex in County cricket, didn’t exactly translate that form against old foe Australia, besides that he is 35. Interestingly, the Saurashtra batter’s Test debut was against Australia in Bengaluru in 2010 and his second-innings 72 during a successful chase marked him out as special. Unfortunately, a leg-injury scuttled his initial forays but he staged a fine comeback and has been intrinsic to India’s middle-order for more than a decade until the stutter over the last few years.

Billed as Dravid’s successor at No. 3, Pujara brought to the table traits that were innate to his predecessor: adhesive batting on the turf and a low-profile, avoid-the-cameras lifestyle off the field. Plus, like Dravid, Pujara stepped in with a steely resolve while also being fully aware that the crowds had trooped in mostly to see the batter stepping in one rung after him at four. For Dravid, it was Sachin Tendulkar; for Pujara, it was Virat Kohli. But both Dravid and Pujara, in their unique phlegmatic ways, had made their peace with fandom’s quirks. Interestingly, Dravid was Pujara’s colleague when the latter made his debut. And now when a seeming twilight darkens Pujara’s visage, Dravid is the coach.

With Ishant Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha being given the cold shoulder from the national team, it remains to be seen if Pujara too has been relegated to that senior players’ club. Their achievements are respected, the ‘thank you’ notes are said while an ominous whisper hangs in their ears: “hey it is time for a youngster, so move on”. They are not the first to hear it and they will not be the last as squad evolution is an inevitable process. Pujara was a unique player, a throwback to a gentler past when there was time to pause and look at the skies, rustle through silverfish-eaten books in old libraries, when the slow life was real and not a fad as it is made out to be. As cricket, driven by revenue streams, preferred the multiple avatars of Tests, ODIs and T20s, Pujara was the quintessential long-format player.

His was a style in sync with Test whites. The winnowing steps, the half-smile, the few words, the defensive shot, the leave outside off-stump, the quick single and equally those fours once his eye was in. While some of his peers were quick to embrace the frenzied underpinnings of limited-over cricket, Pujara was slotted in as a Test specialist, even if briefly the Chennai Super Kings kept him in their stables for the Indian Premier League. The pure Test batter is a near-extinct species and only Pujara largely and to some extent Joe Root have kept that club’s flag flying high.

To hail from Rajkot, famous for its ice-gola, and to push his claims past other stars from bigger cities, was no mean feat. And surely there is a certain cool air when Pujara is at the crease, be it as a batter or hovering as a catcher in the slips or at forward short-leg. There was never any fuss, perhaps an upturned eyebrow once in a while, and then he narrowed his gaze.