Cheteshwar Pujara reveals the toughest bowler he has ever faced in Test cricket

Cheteshwar Pujara rightly exemplifies a resilient batting mindset. Since breaking into the national side in 2010, the right-hander has paved his way to becoming India’s batting mainstay in the traditional format.

The Saurashtra stalwart, on Sunday, hosted a Question & Answer session on Twitter to interact with his fans. Pujara answered a plethora of questions revolving around his preferences in cricket and personal life.

When asked about the toughest bowler he has faced so far in Test cricket, Pujara took the name of South Africa veteran Dale Steyn. “Who’s the toughest bowler you’ve faced in Test cricket so far?,” CricTracker asked Pujara on Twitter. He responded by tweeting, “Dale Steyn, at his peak in 2011-13.”

Steyn, at his prime, was undoubted, one of the most difficult bowlers to face in the red-ball format. His blistering pace and ability to move the ball made life miserable for several batsmen.

Dale Steyn will be seen in action for RCB in IPL 2020

Steyn broke into the South African Test squad but his debut was rather a forgetful one. In the three-match Test series against England, the speedster returned with a tally of just 8 wickets. It was in 2008 when Steyn’s career really took off. The ‘Steyn Gun’ picked 86 wickets in 14 games in 2008 and also clinched ICC’s Player of the Year award.

There was no looking back after that as Steyn etched his way into one of the most successful bowlers in international cricket. He was the fourth Proteas bowler to reach the 300-wicket mark after Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and Allan Donald. He currently is second in the list of most wickets for South Africa across all formats. He has scalped 697 wickets, only behind Pollock (823), while representing the rainbow nation in 414 matches.

Steyn will be seen in action during the much-awaited IPL 2020. He was snapped up by Royal Challengers Bangalore for his base price of INR 2 crore in the auction. He will be a part of RCB contingent along with fellow South Africans– AB de Villiers and Chris Morris.

Meanwhile, Pujara didn’t find any buyers for this edition of the IPL. No franchise was interested in bidding for Pujara, who is not known for his T20 exploits. He, however, had reacted to his IPL 2020 snub by saying that representing Team India will always be his top-most priority and he doesn’t think much about going unsold in the auction.