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| VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid against Australia in 2002 |
The selectors had not too many options but to have a new face
for the No.3 spot. They had only two players who could have been brilliant.
Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara were in the race for the prestigious spot. But then they gave
a chance to the domestic hero Pujara. He was well identified for his patience
and long innings in Ranji Trophy matches. Even a series against a weak New
Zealand team the selectors were in enormous pressure because of two grate
Indian batsmen`s retirement. Pujara was selected for the test match and he
represented india as the new no3 batsman.
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| Cheteshwar Pujara |
On the same test match he made his first test century. He
made 159 runs against New Zealand and justified his selection. He played a
brilliant innings with great skills and great patience. After that fame against
the kiwis Pujara became the automatic choice for the No.3 in Indian cricket
team. The resilience, patience, skills and the hard work was appreciated among
the cricket lovers.
The same Cheteshwar Pujara, who was once dropped for the
England series made his comeback and represented Indian cricket team to hosted
England. The British team arrived in india with some certain intentions to
prove themselves. But after their arrival many spectators wanted india to win
and take the revenge of that brutal series defeats in past. They named this
series as the “Series of vengeance”. In the first test match against England in
Motera, Ahmedabad everybody forgot about players and started talking about the
certain past defeats and uncertain future victories. During the test match for
a moment the Sardaar Patel stadium rocked with applauds and screams. It was
none other than Pujara who made a prolific double hundred against the British
and welcomed them to india. He became a highlight in the news papers on the
other day and people hailed a new legend under making.
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| Vijay and Pujara during a test against Australia |
An innings of 341 ball 204 runs against the Aussies and a
stand of 370runs with Murali Vijay in March this year made him a star by
choice. It was an eye catching innings. After losing Sehwag Early india were in
deep trouble but Pujara Came in the right time at the right spot. He played a
very fast inning as respected to his previous innings. He scored his 2nd double
hundred in that match and gave an introduction of himself as a limited over
cricket player.
+England.jpg) |
| Pujara Against England in 2012 |
He became the 3rd fastest 1000 indian run scorer
in tests. He overtook Indian legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar and joined Vinod
Kambli in the second spot in that list. He achieved this milestone very early
in his career. It took only 11 tests for him to score these runs.
By then people started thinking Pujara and his future. Indian
media and many people in social networking sites compared Pujara with greats
like Dravid, laxman and Ganguly. Many called pujara the new wall. In my
personal feelings Pujara is a great player, but he still is the Hobbit who
needs to groom under many legends. I would never imagine Indian media would
start acting like English media in this case. It`s the tendency of English to
make a person God in a day and convert him to beast after some times.
I have dedicated this article to Pujara and I hail his brilliance but still a
mountain can not be compared to Himalayas. It`s the only case I am penning but
there are several cases in india in the past. After watching Virat Kohli people
called him second Sachin. When Suresh Raina was in his form people compared him
with Sourav Ganguly. It`s the people and the media who actually putting
pressure on new talents by comparing them to the Legends of cricket.
I have a disguised intention behind this “Pujara Story” to
tell. I could have written a big article about Rahul Dravid. I could also have
implemented his milestones to make my
article richer but I didn`t. The reason
behind this to let the people know about the milestones pujara received in his
career. He still needs to take on the challenge in the overseas. He needs to
score daddy hundreds in foreign soils and save matches with his own shoulders like
Dravid did in the past. If I would have written the same story about Rahul
Dravid then I had to add more 9000 pages to complete my article.
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| (From Left) Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag. Indian Batting Legends in a rare picture. |
The Indian legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid,
Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Virendar Sehwag and many more proved themselves in
foreign soils. With a bat In their hands
they conquered all around the world and became Cricket Alexanders. The same
thing Pujara should repeat and I know he is going to.
But as in this universe there is one sun, one moon, one Himalaya
etc likewise in
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| Pujara representing an IPL team in an wallpaper |
cricket there is only one Rahul Dravid,
one Sachin Tendulkar
and one Sourav Ganguly. Over the decade many times many spectators called
Dravid the wall because of his fearless innings. So there was, is and will be
only one wall in Indian cricket. The comparison with new players and these
legends is a baseless thing to discuss about. They already made a temple and
these young guns are still collecting bricks. I plea you to recognize the
intention behind this article. I request you to leave this topic and give this
prolific pujara to create his own destiny. I want him to become The Cheteshwar
Pujara of Indian cricket. He is filling the boot of a great player and he will
make his own identification. But for now he is a Hobbit of Indian Cricket who
is grooming under great legends. He is a player in transition of a legend.
