‘Patience needs mental strength’: Pranayam powering Cheteshwar Pujara to fight outer noise
‘Patience needs mental strength’: Pranayam powering Cheteshwar Pujara to fight outer noise
Calmness was all around the ground floor of Arun Jaitley cricket stadium’s old pavilion when journalists, both Indian and Australian, gathered there for the pre-match presser on Thursday. Unlike the previous game, there wasn’t an urge of finding answers to some controversial questions. Instead, it turned out to be a light-hearted gig with the ‘heavy-weight Champion’ of India’s men’s Test team. Cheteshwar Pujara, who is going to play the 100th Test of his remarkable career, was about to arrive for a media interaction while the questioners were busy scrolling up their memory banks to recall his heroics since October 2010.
Pujara’s career – 99 Tests, 7021 runs and 19 hundreds – is no less than a warrior’s tale, especially the last couple of years. From being the hero of the Indian team in the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy to getting dropped from the squad for a series at home (social media trolling and criticism from experts were complimentary); Pujara held his head steady. He would have been boiling deep down inside but nothing was on his face.
After a bumpy ride, Pujara is on the cusp of achieving an honourable milestone. On February 17, 2023, he will become the 13th Indian player with 100 Test matches to his credit and edge past former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin’s record of 99. A milestone that will put him on the list of India’s Test greats.
In the last couple of years, Pujara went through a process to rediscover his game.
How did he overcome the failure; the media wanted to know it right from the horse’s mouth.
“I had already spoken to Rahul bhai (Dravid) and Vicky paaji (Vikram Rathour) and although I was left out of the team, I had clear communication that there were certain things I had to work on and there will be opportunities to play for India,” Pujara told reporters.
“I got my opportunity again to play that one-off Test match in England and I was ready, I played first-class games for Sussex and scored enough runs, got enough confidence,” he added.
Getting dropped is a pretty big blow to an established cricketer and to deal with it, the mental strength has to be on the higher side. So, Pujara applied a very desi formula to achieve it – Yoga!
2⃣0⃣2⃣ Runs
5⃣2⃣5⃣ Balls
2⃣1⃣ Fours
… and a lot of grit
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