Proving people wrong- the Cheteshwar Pujara way
"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say what you cannot do"
-Walter Bagehot
You may not like him because he is not as flamboyant as some of his teammates. You may dislike him because he doesn't hit big sixes like others. But what you cannot dislike Cheteshwar Pujara for is his ability to prove people wrong in his own determined way.
Mental toughness is a very intriguing yet somewhat a neglected part of cricket. It is an indicator of who you are as a person and how you react to pressure from your own teammates, it also shows whether you have got what it takes to stand up and perform when few think you can.
In that sense, Pujara is a role model cricketer for others to look up to in this side. One admires Kohli for his hunger to make big scores. In the case of Rahane, it is his ability to counter hard conditions.
With Pujara, it's about how he rises when no one expects him to. When he isn't considered good enough, how he battles his way to prove people wrong. This series has been an example for that.
Heading into the first Test, most pundits had his name on the team sheet before play began. And yet, somewhat inexplicably, Kohli didn't find a reason to pick him at Edgbaston. Pujara didn't let the world know about it. No grimace. No show of displeasure.
Instead, there was a want inside him to see others do well, which was evident when it was reported that before India's openers took the field on the second morning, Pujara actually threw balls at Murali Vijay to get him ready for the test ahead.
He was recalled for the next game and a pair of forgettable innings followed, causing his detractors to come out and speak again. The team management, however, showed patience and he repaid it in good measure at Nottingham with a second innings half-century after falling uncharacteristically in the first essay.
But it was on Friday that Pujara showed what he was really capable of. 132 runs of the highest quality, the last 25 percent of his which while batting with the tail.
It was in those last 25 percent that he showed what many believe he could never do. Bat with freedom. Take the aerial route. Score boundaries at will. Maintain a good scoring rate. Was this really Pujara, the one who wasn't considered having the potential to play in this manner and never really was in the reckoning for a place in the ODI side? Pretty sure following last night's late assault, a few opinions have been altered.
The knock on Friday contained 16 fours, meaning 64 runs, in percentage terms is 48 percent. For a player touted to bat slow and not up the scoring rate, that is a significant percentage of runs in boundaries.
The singles contributed to 37 runs while there were 15 instances of 2s and 3s that he ran in the innings.
There is a lot to like about Pujara which often goes unnoticed. His eyes often tell a story, wide open most times, determination written all over it. The multiple taps of the bat to the crease indicates a sense of purpose. When he leaves a ball, he often watches it pass from the keeper's hand to the fielder at slip who then tosses it to the man standing at mid-off and then on to the bowler again.
Pujara represents the middle-class man in this team. Industrious. Trustworthy, Focussed and above all else, a player who cares for Test cricket at a time when more and more T20 leagues continue to cauliflower all around the world. He can be an equivalent to someone who owns a Maruti Alto in a housing society that consists of the public with Mercedes Benz, Bentley etc.
Hopefully, his value to the side is understood and he never has to find another opportunity, where he'll need to prove people wrong.