Weekly Sports Newsletter: Can selectors preserve the last of the dying breed, shades of Ranji, Cheteshwar ‘plays time’ Pujara?

In contrast to the din and dazzle of IPL, Cheteshwar Pujara, these days, is in Sussex wearing whites, entertaining the English county faithful, parked on grassy banks on their garden chairs with their pets for company.
In those idyllic surroundings, he has scored two double tons and a hundred from three games, underlining his association with the timeless art of batting that keeps getting eviction notices from cricket venues across the world.
Pujara has remained the stubborn custodian of that refined skill, flying the lone flag, keeping himself and his batting approach relevant. His latest run-spree bumped his first-class double hundred count to 15, giving him entry into the Top 10 of a l that has Bradman at the top. The elite club has mostly gentlemen from the black and white era with WG Grace two places behind India’s Test specials.
Pujara’s consency in reaching 200-plus scores is only second to Bradman’s. His double hundreds, at an average, show up after 25 first-class innings. Cricket’s undisputed GOAT, The Don, needed around 9 innings.

Among the active cricketers, Pujara is head and shoulders above his contemporaries. On the most first-class 200 l, Virat is second with 7, with Rohit Sharma (5) and Kane Williamson (5) further down the order – all staring up at the impossibility of dethroning the man with the unquenchable thirst for runs.

Two double hundreds and one century in his first three matches. 🤯 🙌
Incredible numbers from @cheteshwar1. 👏 #GOSBTS pic.twitter.com/FjYidiAkD7
— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) May 2, 2022
However, the most storied shake-up of this double hundred l is Pujara’s leap over Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, Ranji to the world. It’s a charming tale featuring the pioneer who gave Indian batting a template and the last of the kind holding on to those century old batting principles.
Their proximity on the l – Rajkot-born Pujara 9th, Maharaja Jam Saheb of Nawanagar 10th – mirrors their geographical closeness. Born more than a century apart, the two, one royalty and the other working class, had cricket thrust upon them. Cricket for them didn’t prove to be some forced compulsion, it turned out to be a life-long pursuit.
Like all princes in the days of Raj, Ranji went to the school established for the young royals – Rajkot’s Rajkumar College. It was an institute that imparted English education and cricket lessons. British coaches were shipped in to teach the heirs of princely states the nuance of the game, the right conduct on the field and dressing room decorum.

ANOTHER double century. 👏@cheteshwar1 💯💯 pic.twitter.com/UDNsrDDkfX
— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) April 30, 2022
In India for a long haul, the colons were using the game to replace the native culture with the British way of life. Their liasoning with the locals would be smooth and profitable if they spoke a common language and similar sensibilities. Cricket was a tool of assimilation.
Ranji, at least on the pitch, proved to be a rebel. Like the Englishmen, he didn’t offer a straight bat to the ball aimed at him. As Neville Cardus wrote, as only he can: “The honest length ball was not met the honest straight bat, but there was a flick of the wr, and lo! the straight ball was charmed away to the leg boundary. And nobody quite saw or understood how it all happened.”

Early in his life Pujara too got a cricket bat in his hand, and that would be his guiding light and walking stick for life. Unlike Ranji, the son of a Railway employee Pujara wasn’t privileged. He had his father, Arvind, as the coach, who had his own version of the MCC coaching manual. But like the British coaches who trained Ranji, Arvind too insed that his son played the game the way it should be.

1⃣5⃣0⃣ 👏@cheteshwar1 = runs. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/7MB1TMbZGB
— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) April 30, 2022
Despite being born in the same city where Ranji got his schooling, Pujara couldn’t even dream of going to the Raj Kumar college. It wasn’t something his father could afford. With palaces starting to get transformed into boutique hotels, Raj Kumar College would be the preferred education institute of the region’s well-heeled elite.
None of Pujara’s schools – Sadguru Bal Mandir, Lal Bahadur Shastri Primary School, Virani High School, Ramesh Bhai Chhaya Boys School – could come close to Raj Kumar College’s grandeur. Only one had a rudimentary play field. The one where Pujara spent his final academic years, was bang in the middle of a busy market, not far from the Fire Brigade building and one stinky naala. It was an obscure building with a small courtyard being its only open space.
What attracted the city’s best talent there was a cricket-crazy principal. “Since most young players would be busy playing tournaments, they would have attendance issues. At the end of the term, the principal and the PE teacher would magically show that the children had regularly attended school,” says Sr Pujara.

Rizwan x Pujara pre-match prep. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/g3vVwefsQf
— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) April 30, 2022
That basic perk was the reason the school with no cricket ground or a coaching programme went on to win the state inter-school tournament. Legend has it that Pujara won most games single-handedly.
With this basic support system, nowhere near the scale of Raj Kumar College or the Nawanagar Palace treasury, Pujara developed a game that took him to Ranji heights.
As if there was something in the air that remained suspended since the days of the Raj, Pujara, like Ranji, would develop a trait to work the straight ball on the pads to the leg side. With time, the famous Ranji glance would evolve. The basic wr work remained the same but the batsmen could now maneuver the ball in a bigger arc. Pujara could work the ball from mid-on to fine-leg, the degree of his wr tweak deciding the angle the ball would take.

ANOTHER 💯!@cheteshwar1 🤯 👏 pic.twitter.com/4nqhzhQjqW
— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) April 29, 2022
The whip-cracking glance would be in the quiver of most sub-continent batsmen but Pujara had something extra. He had also retained in him cricket’s ancient wisdom. He could play time, a fast-disappearing trait that was no longer taught at cricket camps. These days during summer vacations, when the coaching centres get unusually flooded with impressionable kids, it’s IPL that is fresh on their minds. Playing time was so boring, leaving the ball was sacrilege, having more than one shot for a ball was a passport to franchise trials.
Despite his IPL misadventure, Pujara’s batting remained prine. His 15 double hundreds point to an important aspect of his batting. He is no Sehwag. He can’t race to a 200 in no time. Pujara needs to pace his innings, wait for the loose ball, see through deadly spells and break the resolve of the opposition team.
He knows the art of survival, he can bide his time, be the predator with an unblinking focus on his prey’s one moment of weakness or tiredness. Only those who can treat dropped catches, play-and-miss blips as minor mishaps and move on, can climb to Mt 200, 15 times. And the life lessons learnt during those walkathons that programme a batsman to go on a run-binge after getting dropped from the national team.
First-Class Most Double Hundreds in Career

No. of Centuries
Player’s Name
Span

37
DG Bradman
1928/29-1947/48

36
WR Hammond
1925-1946/47

22
EH Hendren
1919-1936

17
H Sutcliffe
1922-1939

17
MR Ramprakash
1992-2010

16
CB Fry
1900-1912

16
JB Hobbs
1909-1933

16
GA Hick
1985-2004

15
CA Pujara
2008/09-2022

14
KS Ranjitsinhji
1897-1908

14
CG Greenidge
1974-1990/91

13
WG Grace
1866-1896

13
JT Tyldesley
1898-1919

13
CP Mead
1911-1933

13
WH Ponsford
1922/23-1934

13
GA Gooch
1980-1996

13
BC Lara
1992/93-2006/07

13
KC Sangakkara
2001/02-2017

12
P Holmes
1920-1932

12
RB Simpson
1959/60-1967/68

12
Javed Miandad
1974/75-1988/89

12
JL Langer
1993/94-2007

12
Younis Khan
1998/99-2016

11
JW Hearne
1911-1929

11
A Sandham
1921-1937

11
VM Merchant
1941/42-1946

11
L Hutton
1937-1953/54

11
DS Lehmann
1989/90-2006

11
CJL Rogers
2005-2014

10
A Shrewsbury
1882-1892

10
J Hardstaff
1935/36-1951

10
RT Simpson
1946-1952

10
VS Hazare
1939/40-1957/58

10
GM Turner
1971/72-1982

10
Zaheer Abbas
1970/71-1982/83

10
G Boycott
1967-1983

10
SM Gavaskar
1970/71-1983/84

10
IVA Richards
1975-1993

10
MW Gatting
1983-1998

10
BJ Hodge
2003-2008/09

10
RS Dravid
1992/93-2009/10

10
DPMD Jayawardene
1997/98-2013/14

9
R Abel
1895-1901

9
FE Woolley
1911/12-1935

9
GA Headley
1927/28-1946/47

9
LEG Ames
1928-1948

9
ED Weekes
1949/50-1953/54

9
DCS Compton
1939-1954

9
WJ Edrich
1938-1956

9
PR Umrigar
1952-1959

9
DM Jones
1984/85-1996

9
MS Atapattu
1995/96-2004

9
MEK Hussey
2001-2005

9
ML Love
1997/98-2008/09

9
MW Goodwin
2001-2011

9
RT Ponting
1994/95-2012/13

9
W Jaffer
1996/97-2018/19

9
P Dogra
2011/12-2019/20

For any out-of-favour 34-year-old, like Pujara, the assurance of selectors of keeping the door open may sound hollow but still they dig deep to find motivation to be in reckoning again.
So when the selectors sit to weigh Pujara’s county runs, it wouldn’t be a decision about a seasoned cricketer in the final hour of his career. It would be a call on a time-tested batting approach that has survived since the Ranji days. As the 200 run-getters l shows, Pujara is the last of a breed. There wouldn’t be a like-for-like replacement for him.
turning the Pujara page, the selectors will end a chapter and close a cricket book forever. They need to be careful and very sure.
Do send your feedback at sandydwivedi@gmail.com.
Sandeep Dwivedi
National Sports Editor