'You Deserved Better': Netizens Share Heartfelt Tributes After Cheteshwar Pujara Announces His Retirement From All Forms Of Cricket

After Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara has bid goodbye to the iconic 'Indian white flannels'. India's legendary number three bid goodbye to all forms of international cricket. "Wearing the Indian jersey, singing the anthem, and trying my best each time I stepped on the field – it’s impossible to put into words what it truly meant. But as they say, all good things must come to an end, and with immense gratitude I have decided to retire from all forms of Indian cricket," wrote Pujara in his retirement post that he shared on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Netizens Salute Cheteshwar Pujara's Grit And Determination

Cheteshwar Pujara was like a 'Kryptonite' to sides like Australia, England and South Africa. After all, who can forget the 11 agonizing body blows that he took when India chased down 328 runs to register a famous victory in Brisbane. Pujara was an old-school Test batsman who loved to wear the bowlers down and score tons of runs. Rarely does it happen that a team finds like-to-like replacement after a senior player decides to hang up his/her boots, and this was something that happened with the Indian cricket team in 2012.

Cheteshwar Pujara replaced Rahul Dravid as India's number three and the rest is history. Often known as the 'White Walker', Pujara had a habit of scoring 'Daddy hundreds'. The testament to Pujara's technical prowess in the red-ball game is the fact that he faced a total of 16,217 balls in his illustrious Test career across 103 matches and 176 innings.

As soon as Pujara announced his retirement, netizens shared their heartfelt tribute for India's former number three who was nothing but legendary.

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Dissecting Cheteshwar Pujara's Numbers In Test Cricket

The former India number three has played a total of 103 matches and 176 innings. He scored a total of 7,195 runs and faced 16,217 balls. Pujara averaged 44.37 in the longest format of the game, scored 19 hundreds and 3 double hundreds.