“It is a big honour for me but it's not right"- Cheteshwar Pujara on his comparison with Rahul Dravid

In this fast-paced world of slam-bang cricket where batsmen are pushing the envelope as far as stroke-making is concerned, Cheteshwar Pujara comes as a breath of fresh air. The gritty Indian No.3 is an epitome of patience, perseverance, tenacity and his penchant to grind out the opposition bowlers to the dust and just bat and bat and bat is a pure delight for the purists.

Pujara, who is a veteran of 75 Tests during which he has racked up 5740 runs at an average close to fifty [49.48] with the help of 24 half-centuries and 18 hundred including three double-tons, has been one of the bedrocks of the Indian Test batting unit since making his debut against Australia back in 2010. He was the cornerstone of India’s historic Test series win [2-1] in Australia where he ground out the famed Aussie attack by playing close to 1300 balls across four Test matches to amass 521 runs which also included three centuries.

Cheteshwar Pujara is often compared to ‘The Wall’ Rahul Dravid for his work ethic and incredible patience but the Saurashtra run-machine feels that he still has a long way to go to even be talked in the same brackets with the former Indian captain.

“It is a big honour for me but it’s not the right comparison because I still have a lot of things to achieve in my life and someone like Rahul Bhai who has played all the formats, scored more than 10,000 runs in Tests and ODIs, he’s played T20 format as well. So I still have a lot of achieving and I’m still learning. I’m at an age where I have taken a lot of guidance from him, luckily he’s always available,” the 32-year-old was quoted as saying by India Today.

Cheteshwar Pujara reveals his first love will always be Test cricket

He revealed how a conversation with Rahul Dravid before his International debut helped him make a transition from domestic cricket to the highest level. Cheteshwar Pujara also felt that ODI and T20 cricket is the future but defended the longest format of the game as well while also stating that there are a lot of die-hard fans of Test cricket.

“First of all, I do agree (On the dying art of defensive Test batting) because when I look at the modern-day youngsters, all of them want to play shots. And yes the future is obviously T20 and ODI cricket. But at the same time, I think there are still diehard Test fans and I am one of those. I always love playing Test cricket at the same time,” he further said.

Coming back to the upcoming Test series, Cheteshwar Pujara warmed up with a 93 in the three-day practice game against New Zealand XI and the Indian No.3 will hope that he can continue with the form that he displayed in Australia last winter.