5 Interesting coincidences between Cheteshwar Pujara and Rahul Dravid
Cheteshwar Pujara is in a rich vein of form and it has been on display in the ongoing Test series between Australia and India. Touted as the next Rahul Dravid of Indian cricket, Pujara has almost lived up to the expectations.
The Saurashtra batsman made his debut for Team India in the year of 2010 at home against Australia. He made an immediate impression with an 89 ball 72 in the second innings of the second Test against Australia that helped India win the match along with the series.
After a string of failures against a strong South African pace attack in 2010/11, Pujara made a roaring comeback to form by scoring 159 against New Zealand at home in 2012.
The right-handed batsman has an enviable record at home, whereas his record in overseas is improving with every tour. While Pujara averages 61.86 at home in 36 games and 38.03 in 31 matches away from home, Dravid averaged 51.35 at home in 70 games and 53.03 away from home in 94 games.
Along with the similarities in batting style and approach, there are few other similarities between the two classical batsmen. In this article, let us have a look at the five interesting coincidences between Pujara and Dravid.
#1 IPL Coincidence
Rahul Dravid represented Royal Challengers Bangalore for 3 seasons (2008, 2009 and 2010) before moving on to Rajasthan Royals in 2011. Similarly, Cheteshwar Pujara represented Royal Challengers Bangalore for 3 seasons i.e (2011, 2012 and 2013).
While Rahul Dravid had a good run in the Indian Premier League by performing well both as a batsman and as a captain, Cheteshwar Pujara couldn’t live up to the expectations in the shorter format of the game.
Both Dravid and Pujara scored their first IPL 50’s against Kings XI Punjab, while they were representing RCB. While Dravid scored 66 vs KXIP in 2008, Pujara scored 51 vs KXIP in 2013.
Another interesting coincidence is that both the players played their last IPL game against Mumbai Indians. Dravid’s last innings in IPL was against Mumbai at the Eden Gardens in 2013, while Pujara played his last IPL game against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in 2014, while he was representing Kings XI Punjab.