Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara | Height, Age, Profession, Net Worth, Family, Biography & More

Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara is an Indian cricketer who is currently the vice captain of Indian cricket team in Test cricket and is the captain of Sussex County Cricket Club in County Championship. He plays for Saurashtra in Indian domestic cricket. Pujara is known for his disciplined batting style which made him an integral part of the Indian Test team for over a decade. His excellent batting was one of the main reasons of India winning their first-ever test series win in Australia.

Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara

• Name: Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara
• Born: 25 January 1988
• Mother: Reema Pujara
• Father: Arvind Pujara
• Height: 165cm (5ft 10in)
• Age: 34 years
• Profession: Cricketer
• Batting: Right Handed
• Bawling: Right Arm Leg Break
• Net Worth:

Early life

Cheteshwar Pujara was born in Rajkot, Gujarat on 25 January 1988 In a Hindu Lohana Family. His father Arvind and his uncle Bipin were Ranji Trophy players for Saurashtra.His father and his mother, Reema Pujara, recognized his talents early and Cheteshwar practised with his father. His mother died in 2005 when he was 17 due to cancer. Cheteshwar Pujara completed his BBA from J.J Kundalia College.

Pujara made his Under-19 Test debut for India against England in 2005. Opening the innings, he scored 211 runs to help India win by an innings and 137 runs. He was also picked in the Indian squad for the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup after scoring three fifties in four innings of the Afro-Asia Under-19 Cup. He was the leading run-scorer of the Under-19 World Cup where he scored 349 runs from 6 innings, including three fifties and a century, at an average of 117. He was the Man of the Tournament in the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.

He scored 97 runs against the West Indies in the quarterfinals before scoring 129 runs not out against England in the semifinals, helping India win by a huge margin of 234 runs. However, he was dismissed for a duck in the final, against Pakistan, which India eventually lost.

Career

Pujara made his first-class debut for Saurashtra in December 2005 and made his Test debut at Bangalore in October 2010. As of 9 May 2021, he is ranked as the world No.14 Test batsman, according to the ICC Player Rankings with a tally of 697 points. He also played 5 ODI matches for India. He was also a part of the India A team which toured England in the 2010 summers and was the highest scorer of the tour. In October 2011, the BCCI awarded him a D grade national contract. Known to have a sound technique and the temperament required to play long innings, he was one of the contenders for a spot in the Indian middle order after the retirement of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. and was a part of the IPL 2021 winning team Chennai Super Kings.

His Test comeback came against New Zealand in August 2012, scoring a century. He made his first double hundred against England at Ahmedabad in November 2012 and followed up with another double hundred against Australia in March 2013, both the times steering India to victory and becoming man of the match.

In the 2012 NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, he was the highest scorer with two centuries and one half-century. He became one of the fastest batsmen to reach 1000 runs in Test cricket in just 11 matches and his 18th Test Innings. He won the Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2013.

In February 2017, during the one-off Test match against Bangladesh, he set a new record for the most runs by a batsman in an Indian first-class season, with 1,605 runs. The previous record was 1,604 runs set by Chandu Borde in 1964–65. In November 2017, he scored his twelfth double-century in first-class cricket, the most by an Indian batsman, breaking the previous record set by Vijay Merchant. He was awarded a Grade B contract by the BCCI in March 2022.

Domestic career

He scored 10 and 203 not out from just 221 balls against Madhya Pradesh at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium at Rajkot to ensure a 203-run victory which qualified Saurashtra for the 2012–13 Ranji Trophy quarter-finals. In his next match, the quarter-final at Saurashtra University in Rajkot against Karnataka, he scored 37 and 352 (dismissed by off spinner K. Gowtham in both innings) to ensure that Saurashtra progressed to the semifinal. Though he was called to the India ODI squad after this success, he was not selected in the first XI.

In 2013, at the age of only 25, Pujara became only the ninth batsman to score three career first-class triple-centuries. His scores were: 302 for Saurashtra against Orissa in 2008/09, 352 for Saurashtra against Karnataka in 2012-13, and 306 for India A against West Indies A in 2013/14. He also holds a record of scoring three triple centuries within a span of one month, although only the last of these was in a first-class match.

Pujara played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the first three seasons of the IPL. In the 2011 players' auction, he was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). He started for RCB for the fourth season of the IPL before injuring his knee in a match against Kochi Tuskers Kerala. The injury kept him out of action for nearly a year before he returned to domestic cricket at the end of 2011.

Quick Facts About Pujara

1. In the 2013–14 Ranji Trophy, he played a lone hand against Bengal at Eden Gardens in November as he scored 102, though his side was bowled out for a meagre 225 in response to Bengal's 303. In the next match against Tamil Nadu at Chennai, he scored a mammoth 269, and struck a 353-run partnership with Jaydev Shah (195) to post a score of 581/6 in response to Tamil Nadu's 565.
2. In 2014 IPL, Pujara began the season as Virender Sehwag's opening partner and was left out after the first six matches in which he made 125 runs at an average of just 25 at a strike rate of 100.80. After having not been picked by any franchise for the 2015 IPL season, he signed for Yorkshire.
3. Pujara was the leading run-scorer for Saurashtra in the 2017–18 edition of the Ranji Trophy, making 437 runs in four matches. Joining the side for the quarter-final in the next edition, he helped his team chase down a target of 372 runs against Uttar Pradesh, the highest ever in Ranji Trophy history, making 67 not out in the fourth innings. In the semi-final, marked by a couple of umpiring errors that went his way, Pujara made an unbeaten 131 in the fourth innings, helping his team proceed to their third final in six years. In the opening round of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy that season, he scored his maiden T20 century and became the first batsman for Saurashtra to score a century in a T20 match.
4. In January 2020, in the 2019–20 Ranji Trophy, Pujara scored his 50th century in first-class cricket.
5. In February 2021, Pujara was bought by the Chennai Super Kings for 50 lakhs in the IPL auction ahead of the 2021 Indian Premier League. He however did not get a chance to play in any match.
6. In April 2022, in the 2022 County Championship in England, Pujara and Tom Haines became the first batters to score double centuries in the same innings of a first-class match while following-on.
7. In July 2022, Pujara scored a century in his first game as Sussex captain against Middlesex in the ongoing 2022 County Championship in England. This was his fifth century in this county season.

Records

• Pujara passed 2,000 runs in a year. He scored 2,043 runs at 102.15 in first-class matches in 2013. Only Chris Rogers with 2,391 runs at 48.79 from 28 matches made more in 2013.
• His 222-run partnership with Virat Kohli is India's joint-highest in South Africa and their highest in the second innings of a Test in South Africa.
• Second fastest 1,000 test runs by Indian player.
• Highest second innings score of 153 by any Indian batsmen in South Africa.
• Most balls faced by an Indian in a Test innings: 525.
• Pujara climbed to a career-best number 2 spot in the rankings for Test batsmen after his double century against Australia in March 2017.
• He is the third batsman for India, and ninth overall, to bat on all five days of a Test.
• He is the sixth Indian cricketer to score a century in a Tour outside Asia on the first day.
• He is the eleventh Indian cricketer to reach 6000 Test Runs.

Personal life

Pujara is the son of Arvind Pujara and the nephew of Bipin Pujara, both of whom played for Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy. When he was 17, his mother died due to cancer. He married Puja Pabari in Rajkot on 13 February 2013. On 23 February 2018, the couple became parents of a baby girl named Aditi.