The Indian cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara’s quiet resilience has long defined his presence in the Indian Test team, even as he often found himself under scrutiny — sometimes for his strike rate and at other times, for a dip in form.
However, one of the most difficult moments in his career, both personally and professionally, unfolded during the celebrated 2018-19 Test tour of Australia, a turning point that is now revealed in greater depth through his wife Puja Pujara’s newly released book, The Diary of a Cricketer’s Wife.
Despite starting the series with a century and a half-century in Adelaide which helped India claim a 1-0 lead, Cheteshwar Pujara found himself struggling with a hamstring injury ahead of the second Test in Perth. Adding to the emotional toll was a sudden health crisis at home — his father Arvind Pujara had collapsed and required urgent hospitalisation. With Puja stepping in to care for his father and managing the crisis quietly, Pujara continued to play in Perth where he could manage only 28 runs across two innings. India lost that match by a hefty margin of 146 runs.
What made this period especially testing for the veteran batter was what came next. During a brief break between the second and third Tests, while confined mostly to his room for recovery, Pujara happened to overhear a phone conversation — an intense discussion centered around his fitness and his possible exclusion from the upcoming Melbourne Test. Although he didn’t react or share what he had heard at the time, the incident shook him deeply.
Puja would only learn about it much later, months after the tour ended, on Pujara’s birthday. The couple was reading through birthday wishes on social media when Puja read out a particularly heartfelt message aloud. Expecting a warm response, she was instead met with silence and a complex expression on Cheteshwar Pujara’s face, one she recognised as a mix of restraint and pity.
Pressing him to speak, she eventually got him to confess that the very individual who had sent the emotional message had, in fact, lobbied to have him dropped from the Test team on grounds of fitness. When asked why he never shared it with her, Cheteshwar Pujara simply shrugged it off, saying such things happened and didn’t always warrant a reaction. He reminded her not to place too much faith in what appears on social media.
Puja revealed that throughout their marriage, Cheteshwar Pujara had maintained a near-complete silence on professional matters, often brushing off his daily cricketing life with vague, repeated phrases about practice sessions and team meetings. His habit of keeping his struggles to himself meant that even significant incidents often went unspoken, his way of shielding both his family and his own inner resolve.
Despite the emotional upheaval, the physical strain and the professional uncertainty, Pujara went on to deliver one of the finest performances of his career. He scored three centuries in the series, including a defining knock in Melbourne — the very Test for which his place had been under threat. His performances were instrumental in India securing their first-ever Test series win on Australian soil. For his heroics, he was named the Player of the Series, a fitting reward for a man who chose to let his bat answer the doubts that swirled around him.
Puja Pujara’s account offers a rare and intimate glimpse into the mental and emotional battles cricketers often endure in silence, revealing how behind Cheteshwar Pujara’s stoic exterior was a story of incredible grit, personal sacrifice and unwavering dignity.
