"Cheteshwar Pujara’s contributions are no less than Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma" - Ravichandran Ashwin's bold claim

Cheteshwar Pujara played 103 tests and five ODIs for India from 2010 to 2023.

Cheteshwar Pujara announced his retirement from all cricket on Sunday, August 24, and tributes have poured in from the cricketing world for the ace Indian batter. Pujara played 103 tests and five ODIs for India from 2010 to 2023, scoring 7135 test runs with 19 centuries in his career.

Pujara hasn’t been part of the Indian think tank in tests since the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 final against Australia at The Oval in London. And most recently, he, along with Ajinkya Rahane, was left out of the West Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy 2025 tournament.

Despite making comparable contributions to Indian cricket to Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, former India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin believes Cheteshwar Pujara never received the attention he deserved.

“His contributions are no less than Virat Kohli’s and Rohit Sharma’s.”- Ravichandran Ashwin on Cheteshwar Pujara

Pujara was seen as the real heir to the great batter Rahul Dravid, and he proved to be a rock at the crease on multiple occasions. Ashwin recently recapped Pujara’s remarkable career, saying that although he assisted Virat Kohli in scoring many of his runs, his achievements were frequently overlooked.

“What did Cheteshwar Pujara stand for in Indian cricket? I said his contributions are no less than those of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Obviously, a lot of people talk about their contributions. The attention is not there. Not every cricketer gets the attention, but that does not mean their contribution is any less. Pujara’s contribution at No. 3, believe it or not, was instrumental in helping Virat Kohli also make a lot of his runs,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

Throughout their careers, Kohli and Pujara shared a number of noteworthy partnerships, amassing 3513 runs at the crease from 83 innings at an average of 43.37, including seven hundreds and 18 fifties.

Furthermore, Ashwin compared Pujara to ‘Whitewalker,’ a famous character in the TV series Game of Thrones.

“The cricket-loving public definitely knows the contribution of Cheteshwar Pujara. If you guys have seen Game of Thrones, there is a character of a white walker. I termed Pujara a white walker. He walks slowly but never leaves the field,” said Ashwin.

Cheteshwar Pujara was instrumental in both of the Indian team’s test series wins Down Under in 2018-19 and 2020-21. He scored three centuries in the 2018-19 test series, and while he didn’t get many runs in the 2020-21 series, he played a huge role in India drawing the Sydney test and winning the Brisbane match.

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