Ishant Sharma. (Photo: Twitter)
India cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara has been often applauded for his calm demeanour on the pitch which reflects in his batting in Test Cricket. The 35-year-old is one of the most serious characters of the Indian team as he hardly engages in any verbal duel or anything else outside of cricket. Spilling the beans on Pujara’s ‘Nice Guy’ character, India fast bowler Ishant Sharma has said that he has been like that right from his U-19 days.
The Saurashtra batter is one of the nicest guys in international cricket, much like his idol Rahul Dravid. Earlier in an interview, Virat Kohli had also revealed Pujara is an extremely religious person. Ishant also stated the same and said that he stayed away from other distractions, unlike other players of his age.
“Pujji [Pujara] was like that from the start. From U-19 NCA days, he used to get up in the morning and do pooja and wear janeu (sacred thread). He still wears it. If you ask him certain [naughty] things, he would be like, ‘no this is wrong, I don’t do it’,” said Ishant on Ranveer Allahbadia’s YouTube channel.
The India seamer further said that Pujara has stayed the same even after several years and other players have joined the path of spirituality like him.
“We used to think, ‘Bhai, tu jee kyu raha hai?’ (Brother, why are you living?). Pujara is still like that, but we have changed with time. With time, I guess, everyone realizes that this [being spiritual] is also important,” he added.
Pujara dropped from India’s Test squad for WI tour
Meanwhile, Pujara has been recently dropped from the Indian team following his poor outing in the World Test Championship Final 2023 where he scored just 14 and 27 in the two innings. The 35-year-old has been averaging 29.69 since the year 2020 with 1455 runs to his name. In place of Pujara, youngsters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad have been selected into the squad for the two-match Test series against West Indies.