With his easy affability and mountain of runs, India Test batter acquires reputation of being the most ‘low maintenance-highly talented overseas player in the world’.
There was little to cheer about at the end of the 2022 red ball season for Sussex. They had been relegated to Division 2 in the County Championship. But less than a month later, the club’s social media handles made an almost Marvel flick-like post-credit scene declaration that overtook the metrics of even Surrey’s ‘champions’ posts. It warranted a celebration. “Pujara will be back for 2023.”
The 1094 runs and five centuries in eight games spoke for themselves. Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace has more to add but first, a confession. ”I tried to sign him at Warwickshire a few years ago – three, I think – we signed him to play the first 10 games of the season and then he got picked to play in the IPL. It was a disappointment,” he tells The Indian Express. His latest gig though has allowed him to work with who he terms as the most ‘low maintenance-highly talented overseas player in the world’.
“If you can’t get along with Puj, you are struggling. He’s an absolute dream to work with. For someone who has achieved what he has in the game, working with our changing room – our club in general – has been absolutely outstanding. A 100 Test matches, you’d never think the guy is this Indian batting legend because he just is, a very nice human being.”
It’s a long standing tradition. The union of Indian batting greats and Sussex. Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji – titled as ‘The Father of Indian Cricket’ – shaped his legend at the club, where he scored 58 staggering hundreds and captained for five years. In a first hand account in the 1920s, teammate Gilbert Jessop describes the regal batter as someone “who emptied the shops in Brighton if he passed along the streets.”
It was Sussex as well where Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi first garnered attention – with his club debut at 16 – and went on to play 88 matches between 1957 to 1970, also becoming the youngest India Test captain during the time.
He may have only played 12 games for Sussex so far, but the connect Pujara has with the club is already strong. Sussex loves him and he adores them back. There’s a dressing room story which Farbrace says ‘shows his mindset and support’ for the club. “When Steve (Smith) arrived, Puj was obviously the captain, and I said to him, ‘In terms of the batting order, because Steve is only here for three games, we will bat him at five.’ We have Tom Alsop at three. Puj bats four and Steve at five. He said, ‘Absolutely, that’s the right thing to do for Tom. From my point of view – for the World Test Championship – I would prefer to bat at three but I think it’s best that we keep Tom there.”
Feeling of gratitude
There’s a feeling of gratitude as well following the events that transpired in Pujara’s first year at Sussex, “If you look at the last season, I was out of the Indian team. I needed runs to get back. I got the right platform here. Scored a few runs. I mean, there’s nothing like playing for the Indian team, but Sussex has given me that opportunity and I’ll never forget that,” he’d tell the reporters on his first day at office this year.
For someone who’s featured in 102 off the 128 Test matches India have played since his debut, being dropped from the Test squad would’ve been a bitter pill to swallow last year. Especially for a home series. Especially Pujara. Less than a year back he’d put his body on the line for India’s second straight Test series win in Australia. Only their second Down Under. All those meaty blows. All those spells negotiated. Almost a thousand deliveries faced/left on both tours, frustrating the most razor sharp of Australian attacks, taking the edge away from them. Series performances that were proportionate of great careers, but no longer enough to account for his place in the Indian dressing room. After a year and two seasons with Sussex, his reputation as India’s chief ‘bat them out of the game’ resource has been restored ahead of the World Test Championship Final against Australia.
London: Indian player Cheteshwar Pujara during a practive session ahead of the World Test Championship Final that will be held between India and Australia from June 7, at the Oval stadium in London, Sunday, June 4, 2023. (PTI)
It’s an advantage alright. Three more centuries to his Sussex tally in four games this year. But time at the oldest of the 18 first-class county clubs in England has refurbished Pujara’s brand on the field as much as it has off it.
The club captain has places to be. One day at the newly opened Sussex Cricketer pub next to Hove with his teammates. The next, at the inauguration of the new multi-faith room at the ground with local faith leaders from the Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim community.
“Sussex, in comparison to some other clubs, is a smaller club. There’s a great family feel to it. There’s a lot of community work done within Sussex,” Farbrace elucidates. “So, in the Crawley area of Sussex, there are a lot of South Asian people living and there’s a lot of work being done to provide cricketing opportunities. Puj is not only great for us on the field but off of it as well because he’s a great role model. I’ve asked him to get involved in a few things and it’s never a question of, ‘Do I have to?’ It’s, ‘What time do you want me?’.”
What’s the Australian expression? “He just bats, and bats, and bats.” That’s not all of it. The 7000 plus run scoring cult figure in India’s whites has occupied the status of a closely knit community’s hero. The county cricket ground at Hove seats barely 6000 people. One of them manages to get hold of the skipper for a selfie after one of the matchdays. “At the cricket with my best mate,” she captions it on Twitter.
There are plenty others who have been lucky, even at away games. “We played at Leicester a few weeks ago and there were a lot of Indian supporters at the game and he spent time having photos with them, chatting with them. He was very accessible. He says yes to everything, recognizing he’s in a very fortuitous position – playing cricket for India – and when you talk to him about what his aspirations are when cricket finishes, he’s very aware of how fortunate he is, but also aware of helping others. It’s no wonder that in county cricket, people have really enjoyed him. He’s such an open book and such an easy guy to get along with,” says the head coach.
Sussex batting coach and former Zimbabwe opener Grant Flower adds, “He’s always got time for other people, which just goes with his character. You can see it on the bus when he travels, he gets involved. With the card games, the banter.” Much like his long hours batting template, there’s something so simple and human about Pujara at Sussex.
The bigger picture
Mohammad Rizwan would reflect on an exchange with his Indian teammate at Sussex last season. “He told me a few things and one of them was to play close to the body. And as everyone knows, we have been playing white-ball cricket consistently over the past few years and play a bit away from our body,” the Pakistan keeper-batter told Cricwick of the conversation he had with Pujara at Sussex.
“In white-ball, you don’t play very close to your body since the ball doesn’t swing or seam as much. So early on here, I played away from my body and got out twice in a similar way. Then I went over to meet him in the nets and I remember him saying that when we play in Asia, we force the ball to play the drive. Here, we don’t need to do that. And we need to play close to the body,” he added.
It’s also to do with the switch between formats. For someone who plays all three, it would’ve taken Rizwan time to acclimatize with the aforementioned. Of letting the ball come to him rather than approaching it. Speed of the bat needs to be toned down as well. For Pujara, it’s bread and butter. Hence, a healthy exchange of information and inputs. The kind of stories one hears frequently during an IPL season. It’s a routine for Pujara at the County Championship.
“When the players want to talk to him – both our players and opposition’s – he’s always available,” Farbrace tells before adding a vital detail, “He’ll show you the way to be successful, why he has been successful, but he doesn’t ram it down people’s throat. ‘If you want to be successful, this is how you ought to do it.’ He just lives the life that says, ‘if you want to be successful, this is the way you do it’.”
Pujara after scoring a ton during the 2023 County Championship. (Twitter)
When Steve Smith joined Sussex this season, Pujara shared his seasonal aspirations as “to try and have a chat to him and learn from him, just to see how he prepares as he has a lot of experience” and “to have his inputs” on captaincy. The Aussie responded with, “I’m keen to play with Puj as well,” further hoping to “spend some time together in the middle and learn a bit more about each other.” This, with days left in the WTC Final that’ll feature the two at opposite ends.
County cricket has been that safe haven for wisdomous exchange between overseas players for quite a while now. With more players becoming format specific, three-four months of cricket together can contribute in – not just individual – but overall quality enhancement of contemporary Test cricket, which has thrusted into a new life with the World Test Championship.
The current Sussex lot are getting a crash course of their own. “He’s had a very big impact on Tom Haynes, Ali Orr, Tom Clark in particular. They get the chance to bat with him on a regular basis. The learning that you have from batting with someone like Puj in the middle is worth years and years and years of practice,” shares Farbrace. “Not just our batters, our bowlers are benefiting. He talks to them about the lengths to bowl, how to get good players out. He’s thinking about how others are looking to get him out, and shares it as how people can get others out.”
It was a department captain Pujara had highlighted at the start of the 2023 County campaign. “We need to believe that we can pick 20 wickets,” he’d say. The India number three knows a thing or two about it. He witnessed the execution first hand. Be it the fast and swinging version starring the likes Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami or the slow and turning act with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
“He always speaks quite attackingly,” adds batting coach Flower. “Regarding the mindset of how the game has shifted with T20 cricket, etc. He’s always very positive with the boys. We’re currently second in the Championship and playing some really positive cricket. It might have rubbed off (on the players) and I hope it has. The guys have loved having him around and they’re looking forward to having him next season.”
The response from Pujara when enquired about his chief aim this Championship season was positive as well – even attacking – some may say. ‘To get promoted.’ Sussex will love him for that, as he adores them back.
