"Overextended His Stay": On Cheteshwar Pujara's Retirement, Ex-India Star's Bombshell

Former India batter Robin Uthappa believes that Cheteshwar Pujara 'overextended his stay' and should have announced his retirement a little earlier. Pujara decided to retire from all forms of cricket after he was not included in India's squad for England Tests and was also snubbed from the Duleep Trophy squads. Uthappa praised Pujara for his contribution to Indian cricket when it comes to Tests but pointed out that he should have retired after not getting picked for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024.

"I think he overextended his stay a little bit. I think it was communicated to him that he will not be considered anymore and this England tour was the final straw. It seemed very bleak for Indian cricket to go back to him, Rahane, at the start of a new cycle. I reckoned when he didn't get picked in that Australia tour, he could have called it time. But obviously, it is very hard," he said on YouTube.

Pujara was a stalwart for India in Test cricket and he scored 7195 runs in 103 matches. However, in the past couple of years, he was not considered for the national side by the selectors. He last played a Test match for India way back in 2023.

Uthappa recalled an incident from a domestic match in 2009-10 to highlight Pujara's brilliance.

"I remember it was a first-class game in 2009-10, it was Karnataka versus Saurashtra and he got a triple hundred. He was batting 200-odd end of day's play. I went early in the morning to have a hit. This guy comes and rocks up at 7:30 in the morning after having scored a double hundred and batted the same amount of time that I batted before going into bat for the game. For him as a personality, he was obsessed with batting and being not out," he said.

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Cheteshwar Pujara Robin Uthappa India Cricket Team Cricket