Open Letter to Cheteshwar Pujara
Dear Cheteshwar,
I am today speaking on behalf of this cricket frenzy nation and all your well wishers. Those days when you were hailed as the heir apparent to the legendary Rahul Dravid himself and nicknamed ‘The Second Wall’ must now seem decades ago. When you bagged the ICC Emerging Player of the Year award in 2013, we were speculating on what records you would break and how many more double centuries you would add to your tally.
Not even once in our wildest dreams did we imagine you would be struggling to keep your spot in the XI and we are sure the recent scenario has been weighing on your mind heavily.
Take a quick look around your dressing room, Che. You would see the aggression pouring out in the form of your captain, Virat Kohli, who never takes a step back when verbal volleys are thrown at him. Look at Shikhar Dhawan, look at his celebrations! A twist of his moustache when he gets his century and a tap of his thighs even when he takes a simple catch.
Even the calm Ajinkya has grace and elegance written all over his cricket. And the eternally talented kid, Rohit Sharma, ‘opens up’ and has a lot to offer to the media after his rare half century. Where does someone like you who keeps to himself, plays a boring brand of cricket and takes up the most dangerous fielding position even after a mammoth innings, fit in? How does playing old school Test cricket impress an outspoken and buoyant Ravi Shastri?
A lot of people had to get injured for you to get a chance to feature in the XI. Sunil Gavaskar on air made a statement, we bet he would not dare make against a more outspoken player. A man of his stature, made his loyalties to a fellow Mumbaikar clear, when he demanded a score of 150 from your bat to regain your spot from Rohit Sharma. Did you pass the litmus test? No, at least in the eyes of the Indian team management and Sunil Gavaskar, you fell short by 5 runs.
So what if you joined the elite list of Indians to carry their bat through the innings? What good does an average of 50 do against Rohit’s 37? The team management is so tightly blindfolded that even this knock of 145 on a landmine like pitch, where not one Indian batsman could put their hand up and be counted, will go unnoticed. Don’t be surprised if you do not find yourself in the starting XI against the Proteas come November. With a lot of ODIs to be played in the run-up to this series, your knock would be forgotten in a hurry.
There is a still a narrow opening which is yours to sneak into, Che. A few eyebrows were raised after your match winning knock at Colombo regarding your exclusion from the XI. The opening has just got wider. The passage to the team is at your fingertips, now. No matter in which form the opportunity presents itself, its imperative that you make them count in a way that the world stands up and takes notice! For a team that has so many stroke players packed in its unit, your defensive game assumes all the more importance.
Che, it's not time to lose heart just as yet. You are just 27 and you have a captain who is just as old. Virat Kohli, as he matures as a captain, would understand the need to bring in a different dimension to his batting unit, which is now unidimensional barring Murali Vijay. He would need a reliable war horse who would absorb all the pressure like a sponge and let go in the form of runs. Who better than you, Che?
If a Sourav Ganguly had a Rahul Dravid to fall back on, Virat Kohli would certainly need a Cheteshwar Pujara to unlock all his goals and dreams.
It is not a question of you deserving a spot in the Indian team any longer, but rather it’s a question of whether the Indian team deserves you from here on.