Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujara is an Indian Cricketer and is a right-handed batsman and a right arm leg break bowler. He has played for the Indian cricket team in both tests as well as One Day Internationals (ODI). In the Indian Premiere League (IPL) he has been a part of top teams like Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and also has been signed by Yorkshire. In the domestic cricket, Pujara represents Saurashtra and he made his debut for Saurashtra in 2005. He made his test match debut for team India in October 2010 and later became one of the fastest batsmen to reach 1000 runs and he completed the score in just 11 matches. In 2013, he made his ODI debut and in the same year he was awarded as the Emerging Cricketer of the Year.

Cheteshwar Pujara was born to Arvind Pujara and Reema Pujara on 25^th January 1988 in Rajkot, Gujarat. Cheteshwar Pujara had connections in cricket and his father Arvind Pujara has been a Ranji Trophy player and had represented Saurashtra. His uncle Bipin Shivlal Pujara was also a first class cricketer. Pujara lost his mom when he was 17 years old. He has completed his BBA. Pujara's parents recognized his talents at a very early age and he started to practice with his father early in his childhood. While playing for the Under 14 level, he made a triple century against Baroda. This showed his class and consistency from a very young age. He maintained this form and made his debut in the Under 19 Test and played against England in 2005 and scored 211 runs in the first innings and helped India in winning the match. Later in the year 2006, he was picked up for Under 19 World Cup and he won the 2006 U-19 world cup 'Man of the Tournament' Award after scoring 349 runs in 6 innings which included a century and three half centuries at an average of 117. He was then included in the Saurashtra Ranji Team and just in the second match he scored 145 runs and became the top run scorer for Saurashtra in the 2007-08 Ranji Season. In the next season, he scored two triple centuries and again scored a triple century in 2008-09 Ranji match against Orissa. Pujara was also included in the IPL and signed a contract with KKR in 2008 and then with RCB in 2011. With a great performance in domestic cricket, Pujara was then been selected in the test team of India and he made his test debut in 2010 against Australia. He performed well in his first match and his score of 72 in the last day run chase was much appreciated by cricket experts. He also became the fifth Indian to score a half century in the fourth innings on debut. He was later picked for the South Africa's tour but he wasn't able to perform well and got injured which led him to be out of action for more than six months. After getting fit in the year 2012, he made a comeback and made his highest score till date - 206 against England. In the next match in the Wankhede Stadium of Mumbai, he scored 135 runs. After his brilliant comeback, he was again picked for the ODI against England but failed to get a chance. Despite not getting chance in ODI, he continued his form in test cricket and was selected for Australia's Tour of India for 4 test matches. In the second match of the 4 Test Series, he scored his second double century and won the Man of the Match award for his performance. This helped him to make his debut in One Day Cricket and he was selected for the Zimbabwe Tour but he failed to create an impact with his bat. However, in the test cricket, he maintained his form and scored a century against West Indies in Mumbai which marked his fifth century. In the match, he also made a partnership of more than 100 runs with Sachin Tendulkar for the third wicket. His next good performance was against South Africa where he scored 153 runs in the second innings at Johannesburg. After this performance, he was picked by Kings XI Punjab for the IPL edition of 2014. However, Pujara wasn't able to continue his performance in test cricket and later in the 2015 IPL edition he remained unsold and later signed a contract with Yorkshire. However, in 2016, in the New Zealand Tour of India, he scored 62 and 78 runs in both the innings of the first test match and helped India in winning the 500^th Test Match.

Cheteshwar Pujara got married to Puja Pabari in February 2013. He was also appointed as the brand ambassador by the Election Commission for the state of Gujarat. Pujara in his career has been able to set and break many records. He passed 2000 runs in a year and has scored 2043 runs at the average of 102.15 in first class matches and was second behind Chris Rogers who scored 2391 runs in 2013. He holds the record of India's third highest partnership in South Africa with Virat Kohli and their partnership of 222 runs is highest in second innings of a test in South Africa. His 153 score in South Africa is the second highest score by any Indian and he also holds the record of second fastest 1000 runs by Indian player.