By Prakash Nair 
New Delhi, August 24: Cheteshwar Pujara didn’t walk away with fireworks, press conferences, or teary locker room scenes. Instead, on a quiet Saturday morning, he let his bat and a simple note of gratitude do the talking. After nearly two decades in the game, the man who wore down the world’s fiercest bowlers has called time on his career. All formats. All levels. Done.
The Quiet Goodbye
The announcement came straight from him no BCCI ceremony, no grand testimonial match. Just a post, honest and stripped down: “Wearing the Indian jersey and walking onto the field, singing the national anthem that feeling cannot be put into words,” he wrote. That was it.
In a sport obsessed with flair and spectacle, Pujara made peace with being neither flashy nor loud. He didn’t need to be. He did the job others couldn’t or wouldn’t. Hold one end. Bat time. Tire bowlers. Win ugly, if it came to that.
He retires with 103 Test caps, 7,195 runs, an average of 43.60, and enough bruises to write a memoir. 19 hundreds, 35 half-centuries, and countless days where India’s hopes rested squarely on his shoulders.
One Last Dance And Then, Silence
His final appearance in India colours came at The Oval in the 2023 World Test Championship Final against Australia. Not his best, not his worst just Pujara being Pujara. Digging in. Trying. He didn’t know then it would be his last time walking out with the tricolour on his chest. But that’s how these things go sometimes.
The loss stung, and the questions about his place only grew louder. But as Hindustan Times noted, Pujara didn’t make a fuss. He just stepped back.
Now, ahead of the new domestic season, he’s stepped away completely. According to Republic World, the 37-year-old informed Saurashtra officials earlier this week, signaling he was ready to walk off for good.
Built for Test Cricket. Nothing Else Mattered.
For a generation of Indian cricket fans, Pujara was a stubborn, necessary constant. A player out of time, almost someone you half expected to pull out a red SG ball and a copy of “The Art of Defence” from his kit bag.
In an age of switch-hits and strike rates, Pujara dared to block. And block. And block. Bowlers hated it. Fans, sometimes, didn’t get it. But captains? Captains loved it.
Ask any Indian Test skipper from Dhoni to Kohli to Rahane. When the pitch got tricky and the opposition smelled blood, it was always, “Let Pujara dig in.”
His 2018–19 tour of Australia is still the stuff of legend 521 runs, series win, and more time spent at the crease than some batsmen clock in an entire career. That tour wasn’t just about numbers. It was about breaking down one of the fiercest attacks in world cricket, session by draining session.
He didn’t play for applause. He played for survival. Then victory. And only then did he raise his bat.
Domestic Devotion, English Summers
While the international curtain has dropped, his love for the game never really flickered. Saurashtra, his home side, saw the best of him long before the country did. And in the county scene particularly with Sussex he enjoyed a second wind. Scoring heaps. Helping younger players. Staying hungry.
There’s something admirable about a guy who, even when out of favour with selectors, kept playing domestic cricket without sulking. Never once did he throw shade in interviews or walk away mid-season. He just kept turning up.
The Pujara Effect
It’s easy to forget how much pressure comes with being India’s No. 3 in Test cricket. You walk in early. You often walk in after a wicket. And you stay ideally, all day.
It’s a position once owned by Rahul Dravid, who himself once said that Pujara was “carrying forward the tradition of grit and resilience that India needed.”
R Ashwin once remarked that Pujara was “a nightmare in the nets” not because he’d hit you out of the park, but because you just couldn’t get him out. That was his gift. And his burden.
No one else in the current Indian setup quite plays like him. And now, maybe no one ever will.
A Career Without Frills, But Full of Weight
What happens when the team needs a draw more than a win? When it needs someone to blunt a new ball for two hours so others can score later? That was Pujara’s space. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was vital.
Too often, Indian fans want their heroes to entertain. Pujara just didn’t care for it. He never chased IPL contracts. He was benched in white-ball squads. But he still showed up, pad straps tight, chest guard in place, ready to do what he does best.
And maybe that’s why his retirement hits harder. Because he didn’t play for himself. He played for India. For the scoreboard. For the context. For the long, hard days of Test cricket.
No Stat Can Measure His Value
Sure, the numbers are there. But try putting a value on time spent in the middle. On the shots not played. On the bowlers worn out. On the games drawn, the collapses averted, the series kept alive.
Cricket won’t see many like him again. And maybe that’s fine. Every era gets the players it deserves.
But every team every single one needs a Pujara. Just one. To remind them that sometimes, the most important runs are the ones that take the longest to score.
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- Prakash Nairhttps://hindustanherald.in/author/prakash/
- Prakash Nairhttps://hindustanherald.in/author/prakash/
- Prakash Nairhttps://hindustanherald.in/author/prakash/
- Prakash Nairhttps://hindustanherald.in/author/prakash/
