Double ton no 17: Pujara shows light and fight not yet stubbed out of him

In cricket, timing is everything. With the five-Test series against England ushering in, and the youngsters not passing the South Africa Test in flying colours, Pujara was filing a notice to the selectors that he is indeed making runs. The selectors might or not have overlooked him for good, but Pujara was doing Pujara things, batting long and deep, 356 balls to be precise, reinforcing the value of an anchor in this form of the game. It was a treatise on innings construction, from which the young crop could learn a lot.

𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗲𝘀𝗵𝘄𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝘂𝗷𝗮𝗿𝗮! 💯💯

A spectacular 2⃣0⃣0⃣ in Rajkot from the Saurashtra batter! 👏👏

Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/xYOBkksyYt#RanjiTrophy | #SAUvJHA | @IDFCFIRSTBank | @saucricket | @cheteshwar1 pic.twitter.com/ofLZSf2qcl

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) January 7, 2024

A couple of years back, after being dropped from the Test team, Pujara went back to the domestic grind and made a comeback after scoring bucketful of runs in Ranji and County cricket. But the route back to Test cricket looks incredibly difficult this time. Even if he scores a mountain of runs, there is no guarantee his name would come up for discussion in the selection meetings. But his love for the game is still intact. He had once told this newspaper: “Of course, playing for the country is the ultimate motivation. But then you are driven by the love of batting too. “

Now Pujara seems to have embraced a new challenge, which is to show that Ranji Trophy still matters, that it is still the Holy Grail in domestic cricket. His intensity seldom drops. “I’m seeing him play with the same intensity and commitment that I saw when he got the Ranji cap,” Arpit Vasavada, Pujara’s teammate from age-group levels to Saurashtra, says. “He values the Ranji Trophy and for him every game is an opportunity to bat. Even when he used to play the odd game in between national commitments, he would play it with all the seriousness. Even now, there is no change in that intensity. He is getting down and showing the youngsters how it is done and how to do it,” Vasavada adds.

Level of intensity

This is what the selectors might have wanted from Pujara after he was dropped from the Test team. They wanted him to compete with the young generation and show the level of intensity that is needed at the top level. The current chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar did it, featuring in domestic cricket for nearly six years after his last international appearance. So has been Agarkar’s colleague S Sharath, who never played for his country despite ridiculous consistency in first-class cricket. He has a letter displayed in his drawing room, written by Sunil Gavaskar, who personally visited him to hand it over to him after he had retired.

It isn’t an appreciation letter or one that shows sympathy for missing out on an Indian cap, but one of sheer gratitude for him continuing to play the Ranji Trophy when there was no call-up in sight, thus helping to make the tournament stay relevant and strong.

2⃣4⃣3⃣* runs
3⃣5⃣6⃣ balls
3⃣0⃣ fours

Sit back and enjoy Cheteshwar Pujara's resilient double century against Jharkhand 🎥🔽 #RanjiTrophy | #SAUvJHA | @IDFCFIRSTBank | @saucrickethttps://t.co/0sXCAopHlU

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) January 7, 2024

Pujara seems to be one on one such journey. He is at a stage where he has nothing to prove. He doesn’t need runs to get back to the India fold. Barring New Zealand and the Caribbean, he has scored a century in every other nation he has set foot to play a Test. Even with Saurashtra, he has won two Ranji titles. Next summer as everyone in India is busy with the IPL, he would be playing county cricket.

For Indian selectors, VVS Laxman’s 1,415 runs in a single edition of Ranji Trophy in 1999/2000 has remained a sacred reference for two decades. From Dilip Vengsarkar to Kiran More, MSK Prasad to Chetan Sharma, it is something that selectors keep going back to. If Agarkar needs to pass a new message to the current crop, then he just needs to deflect their attention to Pujara.

Brief Scores: Jharkhand 140 and 140/2 (Kumar Deobrat 74 batting) trail Saurashtra 578/4 declared (Cheteshwar Pujara 243 not out; Prerak Mankad 104 not out) by 296 runs.