Cheteswhar Pujara retires: Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh hail Indian Test veteran; ‘stood tall when the storm raged…’

After being ignored by the national team for more than two years, Test stalwart Cheteshwar Pujara drew curtains on his career in Indian cricket on Sunday, after nearly 20 years of service. The 37-year-old made the announcement on social media, having played the last of his 103 Tests in 2023 against Australia in the World Test Championship final at The Oval.

Pujara's retirement from Tests came after three of his former teammates called time on their careers in the past year. While Ravichandran Ashwin left the Indian team in the middle of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last year, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli quit the longest format of the game within a span of four days before India's tour of England earlier in the year.    

With 7195 runs at an average of 43.60, Pujara stood eighth in the all time leading run-getters from India. He also amassed 21301 runs in first-class cricket. With another domestic season around the corner, Pujara was expected to turn up for Saurashtra but the champion batter thought it was the right time move on.