Alyssa Healy says Cheteshwar Pujara had few years of cricket left in him after batter’s retirement

Australian captain Alyssa Healy reckons Cheteshwar Pujara still had some fuel left in his tank after the batter decided to call time on his career. Pujara played 103 Tests and 5 ODIs for India after making his debut back in 2010. He scored 7,195 Test runs at an average of 43.60, with 19 hundreds and 35 fifties.

Healy said Pujara played a key role in India’s maiden Test series win on Australian soil. Pujara scored 521 runs in four Test matches against the Aussies at an average of 74.43, including three centuries and thus bagged the Player of the Series award.

On the 2020-21 tour of Australia, Pujara amassed 271 runs in four Test matches at an average of 33.88. 

Healy said on LISTNR YouTube Channel, “It’s interesting, I didn’t realize he was only 37. I felt like he still had numerous years left in him but if he does go down the media path, it’ll be great to pick his brain on cricket and batting in particular.”

“He was a huge part of those two series wins in Australia. He kept their bowling attack out and drained them, making them work so hard. I think by the end of it, they stopped trying to get him out and only tried to get the other end out because they just figured it was too hard.”

Healy also opened up on Pujara’s watertight batting technique as the Saurashtra batter was known to keep the bowlers at bay with his solid defense.

“I always felt like he had such a big front pad. I think a lot of people thought that and went hard at that front pad. But he just found a way to drop the bat in , get it down there at the right time and just defend his off-stump. He was extremely comfortable with his technique and knew how to keep the ball out, which is the most important thing in Test cricket,” said Healy (via the aforementioned source).

“He is also able to bat for long periods of time, which is tough in the modern game. A sad day in cricket but not all surprising. I don’t think we’ll see someone like that again (defensive approach). But Joe Root and Steve Smith play a similar kind of anchor role and let the guys around them flourish.”

Overall, Pujara finishes with 21301 runs from 278 first-class games at an average of 51.82 and 66 hundreds and three triple hundreds.