After Rahul “The Wall” Dravid finally hung up his boots following India’s disastrous tour of Australia in 2012, there were many who spoke of a great era of Indian batsmen coming to an end. Never again, experts said, would there be another Rahul Dravid. How would India ever find a replacement to ‘The Wall’, the man who’d held India’s batting together for more than a decade and a half? Who would carry the team along in times of strife? Who would save Test matches from being lost? Who would anchor the batting line-up and provide the much needed solidity at the top, on which the other more flamboyant batsmen build their innings upon? Who would be India’s next ‘The Wall’?
The answer to all questions was closer home than anyone had expected. Exit Rahul Dravid. Enter Cheteshwar Pujara. Already known to one and all in the Indian cricketing fraternity as the most prolific batsman in India’s domestic cricket, as one who had set the Ranji Trophy alight with his amazingly consistent displays of batting for his state team of Saurashtra, Pujara was known as the guy who scored all those big hundreds, double hundreds and triple hundreds. But all those runs scored were mainly made against mediocre bowling attacks on placid wickets, which is unfortunately the bane of Indian domestic cricket. Could the young man perform on the world stage, just as he had in countless Ranji Trophy matches? Could he be India’s top Test batsman, taking on the fast bowlers of Australia, England and South Africa? Did he have it in him to survive at the highest level of cricket, which is Test cricket?
Early talent from Cheteshwar Pujara
Pujara did show glimpses of his talent in a 2-match Test series at home against Australia in 2010, leading a brilliant run chase in the 4th innings of the Bangalore Test, setting the platform for an eventual Indian win with a confident, well made 72. This was his very first Test match. He did get noticed by a plenty of people around the country with his performance in that match. Then a tour of South Africa followed, where Pujara didn’t do much, which watered down the expectations a little bit. Just after that, Pujara was forced out of Test cricket for two whole years because of a serious knee injury, which many feared would end his career as a Test cricketer for good.
But fate had other ideas in store for Pujara. Following the comically poor performance of the Indian team in Australia, where the team was hammered 4-0, which followed an equally bad drubbing at the hands of England just a few months earlier, the mainstays of Indian batting, both of them legends of Indian cricket, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were forced out. This created a vacancy in the Indian Test team to play New Zealand, and Cheteshwar Pujara, having had recovered from his knee injury by then, was given his chance.
Pujara seized the opportunity with both hands, hitting a well composed 159 in his first knock after making a return. This was followed by a brilliant double hundred and a hundred against the touring English side in 2012. There was more to come – a spectacular double century against Australia on their tour to India. There was now no question about it – India had finally found its next Rahul Dravid, the man who would hold the innings together and score massive runs at the top, match after match.
But doubters remained. Could the young man be as good outside the subcontinent, against quality fast bowling attacks on pitches that that actually have some life in them , where the ball zips around with pace and movement? Could Pujara succeed in South Africa, Australia and England? Well, in South Africa at least, Pujara’s performance was creditable – as he made another big hundred, a 153, at Johannesburg and a 70 at Cape Town, in a 3-match Test series against a fearsome bowling attack comprising of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander. This performance was a fitting answer to all those naysayers who had doubted his ability to be India’s next Rahul Dravid.
But Pujara is yet to play a Test match in England and Australia. To be really considered as a batsman in the same class as Rahul Dravid, he has no choice but to perform well in these countries. Otherwise, the voice of the doubters will grow loud yet again. Many Indian batsmen of the past – Vinod Kambli comes to mind – had done spectacularly in their first few Tests in India, only to be found out and exposed for their brittle technique on foreign conditions on pitches with more pace and movement against quality quick bowlers. Rahul Dravid, of course, proved to an exception to the rule, performing better in foreign conditions than even at home. Will Cheteshwar Pujara also prove to be an exception like the man he seeks to emulate? Watch this space!
