Cheteshwar Pujara’s career, which came to an end on Sunday, may forever be intertwined with his pivotal role in helping India beat Australia Down Under in two Test series on the trot – 2018/19 and 2020/21. However, the Australians had more than a taste of just how much damage his resilience can cause well before that.
It was an innings that turned things around for an Indian team for whom losing a Test series at home was unimaginable and yet, Australia had challenged them in ways few teams had before in the particularly frought 2016/17 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
At the end of that series, India captain Virat Kohli had even said that quite a few friendships with Australian players had been spoilt forever, although time seems to have healed some of those scars in the years since. Australia had stunned India by thrashing them by 333 runs in the first Test of the series in Pune. India bounced back with a 75-run win in the second Test in Bengaluru. The two sides thus came to the third Test in Ranchi with the four-Test series level at 1-1.
Australia batted first and their runs came from a usual source, and a rather unusual one. Captain Steve Smith scored an unbeaten 178 off 361 balls and the man who managed to stay the longest in the middle with him was Glenn Maxwell, who pocketed his T20 smarts and ground out 104 runs in 185 balls as part of a 191-run stand with the former. Smith’s innings helped Australia get to a score of 451.
India got a good start with KL Rahul and Murali Vijay putting up an opening stand of 91 runs and seeing off the first 30 overs. But their foundation really started getting laid only after Pat Cummins got his first Test wicket in nearly six years in just the second match of what has since turned out to be an all-time great career. Pujara walked into the middle in the 32nd over, he would leave only in the 194th. He first put up a 102-run stand with Vijay. After that, India’s middle order fell without making too much of an impact on the scorecard, starting with captain Kohli departing for a single-digit score, a rarety at the time.
Reaching record territory
But Saha was to be to Pujara what Maxwell was to Smith. The pair put up a stand of 199 runs in 466 balls. Pujara got to his century in 214 bals and had Saha at the other end when he raised 150 in 391 balls.
Eventually, he broke Rahul Dravid’s record for the longest Test innings by an Indian batter when he solidly defended a full ball on leg stump by Steeve o’Keefe first delivery of the 185th over. It was the 496th ball he had faced in that innings. With a block for the last ball of the next over from Nathan Lyon, Pujara became the first Indian to have faced 500 deliveries in a single Test innings.
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He ended that session on 190 off 505 balls and then raised his third Test double century shortly after resumption. Pujara’s resilience broke only after that and sure enough, he fell on 202 off 525 balls playing loose shot against Lyon second ball of the 194th over. Pujara walked off to applause from every part of the ground, including and especially from the Australians.
One of Indian cricket’s most resolute and admired Test specialists, @cheteshwar1, has announced his retirement from all forms of the game.
Relive one of his prolific knocks against Australia at Ranchi.#ThankYouPujji pic.twitter.com/1zb22SPWN6
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 24, 2025
Ravindra Jadeja then smashed an unbeaten 54 in 55 balls and India declared on 603/9. Peter Handscomb then led the Australian resistance, grinding out 200 balls for 72 runs before Kohli shook hands with him for a draw. Apart from breaking the record for the longest Test innings by an India, Pujara also equalled Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman for most centuries by an Indian in the longest format against Australia, this being his second. Only two other players have scored more than him – West Indies legend Brian Lara (3) and Wally Hammond, the England great who played between 1927 and 1947.
‘People don’t understand his importance so much in this team’
What Kohli said after the match pretty much summed up the dichotomy that followed Pujara throughout the career, even towards the end of it even after his value was there for all to see in the series win in Australia. “You know, sometimes I really feel bad for him,” Kohli said, when asked about Pujara’s contributions through the season. “People don’t understand his importance so much in this team and what a valuable player he is for us. He is the most composed player we have in the team, he is willing to grind for his runs, he doesn’t mind batting under pressure, he likes to take a challenge of batting.
“So someone like that is priceless to have in the team. When the pressure situation comes up, he is someone who will put his hand up and play long for the team and hold up one end, which I think is a great quality in him. This season he has been outstanding. I don’t know the number of runs he has scored but he has contributed throughout. He has not been spoken about much or has been in the focus too much but he deserves much more than that. People need to stand up and take notice of what he has done this season, he has been outstanding with the bat and hopefully he will continue that in the last Test.”
