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Cheteshwar Pujara Credits Rahul Dravid For Teaching Him Life Beyond Cricket

June 27, 2020

Written By,

Payel Gosh

Test expert Cheteshwar Pujara is greeted for his patience and focus retaining the aptitude to bat for hours. But he’s not obsessed with cricket and identifies when to switch off.

He acclaims former India batsman Rahul Dravid for clearing his awareness about how to distinct cricket from his private life. A thing he also witnessed while playing county cricket in England.

“He (Dravid) helped me understand the importance of switching off from cricket. I had the same thought, more or less, but when I spoke to him, it gave me a lot of clarity about it and I was sure of what I needed to do,” he told ESPNcricinfo.

According to Pujara he also saw in county cricket how they keep personal and professional lives separate. He values that advice a lot. Pujara says many people consider him to be focused, which he is. But he says he also know when to switch off as there is life beyond cricket.

Dravid is Pujara’s ultimate inspiration from his career start

Dravid scored 10889 runs in 344 ODIs and 13288 runs in 164 Tests. He was also team skipper in 79 ODIs, winning 42 of them, which comprises the world record of 14 uninterrupted wins while chasing.

Pujara said Dravid he always been an inspiration. But in spite of his charm with the batting legend, he not once tried to copy him.

Pujara said that he cannot say in one line what his Rahul bhai means to him. Dravid has always been an inspiration to him, and will remain one.

“There is a similarity in our games, but that’s not because of my fascination with him. That came mainly through my experiences with Saurashtra, where I learned that scoring a hundred alone isn’t enough, you have to carry your team,” he added.

Pujara said he assigns value to his wicket and learnt the duty to bat on in the course of his junior days itself. He has 5840 runs from 77 Tests so far.

“That is how I learned responsibility – it is about helping my team to raise a big total, and for that I ought to attach importance to my wicket. I learned that from my junior cricket days with Saurashtra, which was a weaker team in domestic cricket,” he said.

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Written By,

Payel Gosh

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