Cheteshwar Pujara’s ability to bat for long periods and dominate the pitch has left a lasting impression on his former India teammate Rohit Sharma.

Speaking at the launch of Pujara’s wife Puja’s book, The Diary of a Cricketer’s Wife, in Mumbai, Rohit reflected on their early days playing age-group cricket together and how much respect Pujara commanded.

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“I still remember, team meetings only revolved around him (on) how to get him out, and if we don’t get him out, probably we’d lose the game,” Rohit recalled, highlighting the challenge Pujara posed even then.

Rohit also shared a personal memory of the physical toll facing Pujara used to take on him.

“All I remember is that when I used to go to the ground, when I was 14-years-old, and when I came back in the evening, the colour of my face would be completely different,” he said.

“Because he used to bat all day and we used to field in the sun for (even) 2-3 days. I still remember that my mother asked me a couple of times that when you go to play from home, you look different and when you come home, after a week or 10 days, you look different. I would say, ‘mom, what do I do? There’s a batsman by the name of Cheteshwar Pujara. He’s been batting for three days’… so that is the first impression that we had of him.”

Heaping praises on Pujara’s resilience in overcoming serious injuries early in his career, Rohit said, “(It was) such a big injury (and) such a bad injury. Both his ACL were gone. For any cricketer, leave alone if you are not an athlete or not playing any sport, for a sportsman it’s very, very tough if you lose both your ACL,” he said.

The two share a special bond that dates back to their teenage cricket days, having formed the core of India’s batting at the 2006 U19 World Cup, where they finished runners-up.

“We used to tease him about his running technique and all that but he managed to play more than 100 Test matches for India after that, a lot of credit goes to him for how he managed it. Great amount of dedication and passion he had to play the sport,” Rohit said.