Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara was born on 25 January 1988 at Rajkot, Gujarat, India. His father, Arvind, played Ranji trophy cricket for Saurashtra as a right handed batsman and it was he that initially identified Cheteshwar as a player of considerable talent . Pujara was first recognised in international circles when he appeared for the Indian Under- 19 team on debut in 2005 against England when he scored 211 runs, enabling India to win an innings and 137 runs. He played in the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup when he was nominated as the player of the tournament.
In 2013, at the age of 25 he became only the ninth batsman to score three career first-class triple centuries. He has appeared in the IPL initially for KKR and then he was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore but in his fourth year of playing in the IPL he injured his knee in 2011 and missed the rest of the 2011 season.
Cheteshwar made his full international debut in 2010 in the home series against Australia. He made his comeback after injury in 2012 in the series against New Zealand and scored his maiden test century at Hyderabad. He struggled for form in the 2104 tour of England, facing difficulty with the moving ball in English conditions, and was left out of the national side. With the BCCI’s approval, he played for Derbyshire for the last three games of the Championship
In May 2017, ahead of the first test, he signed for Notts as a replacement for James Pattinson and in his first game against Gloucester he scored 112. In his four-match spell with Notts in five innings he made a total of 233 runs, the following year he regained his place in the Indian team and in 2018 he played for Yorkshire and later in 2020 he signed for Gloucester.
Cheteshwar married Puja Pabari on 13 February 2013 in Rajkot India and in 2018 they had a daughter Aditi; in 2014 he was appointed a ‘brand ambassador’ for the state of Gujarat.
June 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 643