Cheteshwar Pujara, emerging 'Wall' of the Indian cricket

Ahmedabad: It was a moment of pride for Team India, as Cheshwara Pujara just after having a cup of tea came out to crease and completed his maiden double ton against England at Motera. Pujara hit a solid bat on Anderson's ball, an open face steering it past the repositioned man for the single and that took him to 200. Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara, born 25 January 1988, in Rajkot, is a right-handed batsman who plays for Saurashtra in domestic cricket. In the IPL, he plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Pujara has the distinction of hitting three triple centuries within a span of one month, although only the last of these was in a first-class match. In October 2011, the BCCI awarded him a C-grade national contract. Bestowed with an excellent technique, he also has the knack of playing long innings at the crease. After the retirement of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, he has managed to cement his position at no. 3 due to his brilliant technique and temperament. He made his comeback to the Test squad against New Zealand in August, 2012, scoring a century. Pujara was selected for the Indian squad for the home Test series (2-match series) against Australia in 2010, replacing Yuvraj Singh who was struggling with form issues. He made his debut in the Second Test of the series on 9 October 2010 at Bangalore after both Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman were down with injuries sustained in the First Test. While Laxman was off the field injured in the First Test, Pujara took two catches at silly point as a substitute. Pujara's first Test innings was short however as he scored four runs but was adjudged leg before wicket to Mitchell Johnson on the third ball he faced. On 6th Nov,2 012 a new turning point came to Chintu's life, when he got engaged to Pooja Pabari. Pujara played for Kolkata Knight Riders in the first three seasons of the IPL. In the players' auction of 2011, he was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore. He turned up for the Royal Challengers Bangalore for the fourth season of the IPL before injuring his knee in a match against Kochi Tuskers Kerala. The injury kept him out of the action for nearly a year before he returned to domestic cricket at the end of the year 2011. He registered his highest score in Test cricket when he registered his maiden double century against England in the first Test at Ahmedabad today. This was only his 6th test match.