Cheteshwar Pujara retires from all forms of Indian cricket

India batter Cheteshwar Pujara has announced his retirement from all forms of Indian cricket. The Test batter made the announcement on X (formerly Twitter).

"Wearing the Indian jersey, singing the anthem, and trying my best each time I stepped on the field - it's impossible to put into words what it truly meant. But as they say, all good things must come to an end, and with immense gratitude I have decided to retire from all forms of Indian cricket," he said in a post on X.

Pujara, 37, played 103 Tests and 5 ODIs for India after making his debut in 2010. He scored 7,195 Test runs at an average of 43.60, with 19 hundreds and 35 fifties. At home, he score 3839 of his total Test tally, averaging 52.58. For over a decade, he was India's most reliable No. 3, essaying an important role in some of the team's most significant Test wins at home and overseas. His last Test appearance was the World Test Championship final against Australia at the Oval in June 2023. Even as India looked elsewhere for top-order options since that fixture, Pujara continued to ply his trade in red-ball cricket for Saurashtra and also turned out for Sussex in the County Championship.

Pujara scored the first of his 19 Test hundreds against New Zealand in Hyderabad in August 2012. Against England at home two months later, he scored his first double century and followed that up with a ton in the Wankhede Test, known more for Kevin Pietersen's heroics. In an enthralling drawn Test against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2013, he scored a second-innings 153, batting for nearly six hours for it. Another notable away performance came in Colombo in 2015, where he opened the innings and scored 145 off 289 deliveries, once again batting for a long period. In England in 2018, he stood tall on a seaming Southampton track to score an unbeaten 132 - Virat Kohli's 46 was the next-best score in that scorecard. He followed that up with a second-innings 51, albeit in a lost Test. He is also only one of only three Indians to bat on all five days of a Test.

Pujara was also central to India's India's back-to-back series wins in Australia. In 2018-19, he hit three centuries - in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney - as India secured a historic first Test series win Down Under. The tour two years later defined his grit, as he batted out 928 balls across four Tests against the likes of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. He also copped several blows to his body enroute to a defiant 211-ball 56 in Perth, where India fashioned one of their most famous away Test victories.

More to follow...