Cheteshwar Pujara retires: Nearly 30 percent of Indian team’s runs were scored when he was at the crease, faced over 16 percent of deliveries

Pujara spent more hours at the curated strips, in the sun, than most Indian cricketers in the 21st century, a vigil lasting 41,715 deliveries in the red-ball circuit. It is the fine brand of absorption and deceptive accumulation that made the tough Saurashtrian the most worthy successor of the legendary Rahul Dravid at No.3 for Tests in the previous decade.

In his inimitable way, he led the batting leaderboard for the country for almost a decade before the rapidly evolving international structures gnawed into his batting pies, eventually clocking the Pujara marathon close at 103 Tests. With 6529 of his 7195 runs at No.3, Pujara carried the hallmark of the haloed batting position, finishing second only to Rahul Dravid among Indians and the sixth-best No.3 in history in terms of runs.

Of time and accumulation

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, in hindsight, that Pujara ended up serving more than half a month (15.17* days) batting in his Test career, only bettered by a pantheon of legends in Indian cricket in Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli. Pujara had reserved at least two hours (124.14 mins) per innings on average, only behind Dravid (154.3) and Tendulkar (125.5). He holds the second-highest balls per innings ratio from the aforementioned club at 92.14, pipping even the great Tendulkar (89.47/inn) to remain attuned to the Dravid (109.03/inn) ethos at No.3 as much as possible.

Pujara almost symbolically measured time in a Test match during his peak, precise in consumption of the opposition’s best attacks while more strokefully aggressive batters pushed the scoreboard forward. Assurance at one end was his incantation, exemplified by his intriguing partnership shares.

In the 103 Tests he has played between 2010 and 2023, Pujara played out 16.56 percent (16,217 balls) of the total 97,884 deliveries India faced, comprising 56 other teammates. The run stocks take a marginal dip in terms of contribution, valued at 14 percent (7195) of all 51,358 runs India made with the bat alone. And yet, the Pujara factor bound the batting group at the core, for nearly 30 percent of India’s total runs were made during the time he was at the crease.

While he contributed 7,195 in the process, Pujara’s batting partners collectively accorded 9,063 with him from the other end, totalling over 30 percent of the team runs (16,258 of 53,841) in his presence in the matches he’d played.

That does not, however, tantamount to a lesser appetite for runs for Pujara has most often made his big knocks sap the juices of the opposition with daddy hundreds. Pujara’s 19 Test hundreds averaged 144.53 per knock, adding 2,746 runs to his and India’s profile. Only Tendulkar and Dravid have scored more runs by wealthy extension of hundreds at a higher average for India.

It is a quality that Pujara honed in the Rajkot stables even before his Test debut with a Ranji Trophy triple hundred in 2008-09 and a 204* in 2009/10. He later mastered the art in sync with his international commitments, smashing seven more (one triple hundred) for Saurashtra in the following years to equal the domestic Ranji record, three for India, and six in other FC commitments. His 18 double centuries effectively remains the benchmark for all First Class batters around the globe in the last 77 years and the fourth-highest tally of all time.

Peaks and nadirs

Since taking over the No. 3 mantle post Dravid’s retirement from August 2012, Pujara enjoyed overwhelming success, dominating the Test format alongside a select few up until January 2019, when he smashed an epochal 193 in Sydney to help India lift the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

In the 76-month and two-week period, only 24 batters appeared in more than 50 Tests, and Pujara’s 52.66 average stood fourth behind Steve Smith, Kohli, and Kane Williamson. He gobbled up a whopping 11475 deliveries, distinctly the best balls per innings ratio of the five batters who faced at least 10,000 deliveries in the time.

Pujara remained imperious at home, dominating visiting teams with 6,303 runs, the most among all Indians at 62.82, with 10 centuries and 13 fifties. The corresponding timeline also served the best of Pujara away, clocking 5,172 in 30 matches with eight hundreds and a 42.70 average – only bettered by a concurrently dominant Kohli’s 5,523 runs at 56.70 for India.

For the next four-and-a-half years, however, the freefall was swift and stunning. Newer impediments began to crop up, visibly crippling him against spin, the same tweakers he used to dominate throughout a glorious first half of his career.

From a momentous August of 2019 and the subsequent rise of the World Test Championship era, Pujara played through 35 Tests as he helplessly stood witness to his falling averages. Pujara’s career average plunged by nearly eight runs from 50.49 to 43.60 in the phase. For a man earmarked for the long hauls in Tests from his formative years, it is ironic that Pujara could not endure the grinding WTC era, his 1769 runs coming at a trivial 29.98 in 62 innings, crossing the century-mark only once in between after carrying a damning drought of 1443 days in between his 18th and 19th Test century in Chattogram in December 2022.

Moving out from the international roster, Pujara remained indispensable on the Ranji and County cricket terrains for two more seasons, packing 10 of his 66 First Class hundreds in his last two seasons.

Pujara’s innate tenacity to battle for time and runs will remain guarded among the most important chapters in Indian cricket. Despite his prolonged lull over the last four seasons of his international career, Pujara bowed out as much of a match-winner as any contemporary, building 58 Indian wins with 4,408 runs (61 percent of career runs) across 13 years, brick-by-brick.