‘Wanted Me Dropped’: Pujara Overheard Shock Team Exclusion Talks Amid Injury and Family Crisis

In a stunning revelation from Puja Pujara’s book, ‘The Diary of a Cricketer’s Wife’, Cheteshwar Pujara, India’s stoic middle-order batter, overheard conversations about his potential exclusion from the Melbourne Test during the historic 2018-19 tour of Australia. This came at a time when Pujara was grappling with a hamstring injury and a deeply personal crisis involving his father’s medical emergency, adding layers of emotional turmoil to his professional challenges.

The tour began on a high note for Pujara, who played a pivotal role in India’s 1-0 lead with a gritty century (123) and a crucial half-century (71) in the first Test at Adelaide. His resolute batting laid the foundation for India’s eventual triumph, marking their first-ever Test series win on Australian soil with a final scoreline of 2-1. However,clouds gathered soon after as Pujara sustained a nagging hamstring injury ahead of the second Test in Perth.

Amidst this physical setback, a personal storm brewed. Pujara’s father, Arvind, suffered a severe fall, necessitating immediate hospitalization and an emergency heart procedure. Choosing to shield his teammates from distraction, Pujara kept this ordeal private, bearing the emotional weight alone. Yet, his performance in Perth suffered, managing just 28 runs across two innings as India slumped to a 146-run defeat.

During the tense interval between the Perth and Melbourne Tests, Puja recounts a chilling incident. While resting his injury in his hotel room, Pujara inadvertently overheard a phone conversation where someone insisted he was unfit to play and should be dropped for the upcoming match. ‘He did not want my husband to play in the coming match because he was unfit. It was an unpleasant incident,’ Puja wrote, highlighting the sting of betrayal amidst Pujara’s silent struggles. True to his unflappable nature, Pujara refrained from confronting the issue or disclosing his father’s condition to anyone in the team.

This incident remained buried until a seemingly innocuous moment after the tour, on Cheteshwar’s birthday. As Puja scrolled through social media birthday wishes, reading aloud a particularly heartfelt message, she noticed an unusual silence from her husband. Pressing him, she uncovered the hidden pain of that overheard conversation. ‘This guy you’re praising wanted me dropped from the team because of fitness issues,’ Pujara revealed nonchalantly, advising her not to trust everything on social media. His understated response—‘Such things happen, and not everything deserves a reaction’—reflected his steely resolve.

Puja’s account also paints a broader picture of Pujara’s reticence about professional pressures. ‘Throughout my marriage, Cheteshwar’s description of his trips has been limited to three sentences: “We had practice, a team meeting, and then I returned to the room,”’ she writes, illustrating how he consistently shielded her from the politics and gossip of the cricketing world.

Yet, adversity only seemed to harden Pujara’s determination. Defying the whispers of exclusion and battling personal and physical pain, he returned with unwavering focus in the subsequent matches. His monumental contribution, including another century in Sydney, earned him the Player of the Series award with a staggering 521 runs at an average of 74.42 across the four Tests. His resilience underpinned India’s landmark victory, a testament to his mantra of letting the bat do the talking.

In retrospect, this episode from Puja Pujara’s book not only humanizes a cricketer often seen as an impenetrable wall of concentration but also underscores the unseen battles athletes endure. Cheteshwar Pujara’s journey through the 2018-19 series stands as a powerful narrative of grit, silence, and triumph against all odds in the annals of Indian cricket history.