About Cheteshwar Pujara
Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara (born 25 January 1988) is a former Indian cricketer who represented the Indian national team for over thirteen years. Pujara played for Saurashtra in Indian domestic cricket and for Sussex Cricket club in English County Championship. A specialist in first-class cricket throughout his career, Pujara was known for his disciplined and patient batting style which made him an integral part of the Indian Test team for over a decade. He played in over 100 Test matches for India. Pujara made his first-class debut for Saurashtra in December 2005 and made his Test debut at Bangalore in October 2010. He also played 5 ODI matches for India. He was a part of the India A team which toured England in the 2010 summer and was the highest scorer of the tour. In October 2011, the BCCI awarded him a D grade national contract. Known to have a sound technique and the temperament required to play long innings, he was one of the contenders for a spot in the Indian middle order after the retirement of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. and was a part of the IPL 2021 winning team Chennai Super Kings. His Test comeback came against New Zealand in August 2012, scoring a century. He made his first double hundred against England at Ahmedabad in November 2012 and followed up with another double hundred against Australia in March 2013, both the times steering India to victory and becoming man of the match. In the 2012 NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, he was the highest scorer with two centuries and one half-century. He became one of the fastest batsmen to reach 1000 runs in Test cricket in just 11 matches and his 18th Test Innings. He won the Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2013. In February 2017, during the one-off Test match against Bangladesh, he set a new record for the most runs by a batsman in an Indian first-class season, with 1,605 runs. The previous record was 1,604 runs set by Chandu Borde in 1964–65. In November 2017, he scored his twelfth double-century in first-class cricket, the most by an Indian batsman, breaking the previous record set by Vijay Merchant. He was awarded a Grade B contract by the BCCI in March 2022. However, following a string of poor performances Pujara was dropped from the Indian National Team after a poor showing at the World Test Championship Final in 2023. In June 2025 Pujara joined the BBC Test Match Special commentary team as a colour commentator/analyst for the first test of the series between England and India at Headingley. Cheteshwar Pujara announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on 24 August 2025.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.