Setbacks have made him mentally robust, says Cheteshwar Pujara’s father

Image Source : GETTY IMAGES Cheteshwar Pujara
India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara’s psychological toughness comes from the setbacks he bought early in his life and the truth that he understood that solely large, lengthy knocks will matter if he has to make an impression from a small centre, says father Arvind Pujara.
The 32-year-old Pujara performed a key position in serving to India draw the third Test at Sydney and in Australia’s defeat within the fourth and remaining Test on the Gabba, Brisbane. He confronted 928 deliveries in all on this tour with 211 of these approaching the fifth day in Brisbane the place he was hit on his physique and head a number of instances. Often he was seen grimacing in ache.

“He has scored a lot of runs staying at the crease in junior cricket. The more you practice and score runs, the more you get hit on the body. It is part and parcel of the game,” says father Arvind Pujara, recalling a triple century (306) on the age of 13 he made towards Baroda in an under-14 match on the Moti Bagh Stadium.
“It was a three-day game. He batted long for 306 runs and then fielded. The more you practice, the more you will get hit by the ball. He got used to it. He has been playing consistently. In junior cricket, he has made 5,000 runs. In that also, you get hit. You don’t get hit this much, but you do. He developed toughness because of that,” Arvind instructed IANS on Thursday.
There have been different incidents early in life that taught Pujara learn how to climate storm.
When he was 18, Cheteshwar was returning house in Rajkot after taking part in a match in Bhavnagar. He reached house to seek out that his mom was no extra.
“When he left Bhavnagar, he had spoken to his mother on phone. But when he reached Rajkot at 7 pm, he found his mother expired. He controlled himself remarkably. His life has been challenging,” remembers Arvind.

“Then he broke his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament, which stabilises knee joint by connecting thighbone to shinbone) twice during IPL (left leg in 2009 with KKR and right leg in 2011 with RCB). It took away a couple of years of cricket from him. What is worse, when he was under rehab the second time (for ACL injury) in Bangalore, I suffered a heart attack. All these setbacks have made him mentally tough,” added Arvind as he waited for his son to achieve Rajkot.
There has been criticism that Pujara is not athletic and may’t run.
“People don’t know what breaking an ACL means. It can finish one’s career.”
Pujara senior added that he had drilled in his son the necessity to rating large to get seen out of small city and that would occur provided that he performed straight and correct cricket pictures.
“When you come from a small centre, you have no value if you score 50. But if you score 100, then only people talk about you. You have to get extraordinary scores to play at the top. If you don’t play with a straight bat, you will struggle and get out. You will not get a chance.”
There shall be no celebrations on his arrival. The greatest concern for the household could be to get him handled for any damage he might need suffered after the blows on the fifth day, particularly by Pat Cummins.
“We don’t know yet how he is. Just spoken to him on phone. So we don’t know how he is feeling. We will have to get him treated if he is injured. He has the England series coming up,” added Arvind.