‘Mom, what do I do?': When Rohit Sharma recalled feeling helpless watching Cheteshwar Pujara bat during U-14 days

Indian Express

9 hours ago

If Cheteshwar Pujara manages to bat and dominate the pitch for a couple of days in succession, it could even break the spirit of his former India Test teammate Rohit Sharma in the opposition.
Recounting the memories from their age-group cricket days during the launch of Pujara's wife Puja's book, 'The Diary of a Cricketer's Wife', in Mumbai on Thursday, Rohit said he and his teammates spent most of their time plotting how to dismiss the sturdy Saurashtra batter who would go onto form the backbone of India's Test line-up for nearly a decade.
'I still remember, team meetings only revolved around him (on) how to get him out, and if we don't get him out, probably we'd lose the game,' said Rohit.
The former India skipper added that even his mother would feel worried by his physical conditions after having gone up against Pujara on the field.
'All I remember is that when I used to go to the ground, when I was 14-years-old, and when I came back in the evening, the colour of my face would be completely different,' he said.
'Because he used to bat all day and we used to field in the sun for (even) 2-3 days. I still remember that my mother asked me a couple of times that when you go to play from home, you look different and when you come home, after a week or 10 days, you look different.
'I would say, 'mom, what do I do? There's a batsman by the name of Cheteshwar Pujara. He's been batting for three days'… so that is the first impression that we had of him,' Rohit remarked.
Rohit also lauded Pujara for having featured in more than 100 Tests despite suffering harrowing ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries on both knees at the start of his career. Despite his recovery, the injuries would leave an irreversible impact in Pujara's running.
'(It was) such a big injury (and) such a bad injury. Both his ACL were gone. For any cricketer, leave alone if you are not an athlete or not playing any sport, for a sportsman it's very, very tough if you lose both your ACL,' he said.
Before playing several Tests together for India, Rohit and Pujara had also helmed the Indian batting order during the 2006 U19 World Cup where they finished runners-up.
'We used to tease him about his running technique and all that but he managed to play more than 100 Test matches for India after that, a lot of credit goes to him for how he managed it. Great amount of dedication and passion he had to play the sport,' Rohit added.