Cheteshwar Pujara has decided that his “all good things” moment has arrived. The 37-year-old announced on Sunday that he is retiring from all Indian cricket with immediate effect, bringing the curtain down on a quietly outstanding Test career that spanned 103 matches and 13 years.
“Wearing the Indian jersey, singing the anthem, and trying my best each time I stepped on the field – it’s impossible to put into words what it truly meant,” he wrote on Instagram. “But as they say, all good things must come to an end, and with immense gratitude I have decided to retire from all forms of Indian cricket. Thank you for all the love and support!”
Pujara last appeared for the national side in the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval in June 2023. He leaves with 7195 Test runs at 43.60, figures that place him among India’s most reliable No. 3s since Rahul Dravid. Five one-day internationals came early in his journey, but it was the longer format that defined his craft.
The right-hander’s first-class story began back in December 2005 for Saurashtra and, tellingly, he was still turning out for them in the Ranji Trophy earlier this year. Between those book-ends came marathon knocks in Johannesburg, Ranchi and, most famously, Sydney and Brisbane during the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar triumph—innings built on soft hands, sharp judgement and a tolerance for pain that team-mates swear by.
From a statistical angle, Pujara ends eighth on India’s all-time Test run list. More revealing, perhaps, is the context of those runs: many arrived on difficult surfaces, often after early wickets, and usually set up, or saved, matches that mattered.
His retirement does leave a gap. With Virat Kohli already shifting towards the veteran bracket, India’s red-ball middle order will look very different over the next cycle. Shubman Gill has been groomed for No. 3, but there is no straightforward replacement for a player whose method—occupy, blunt, cash in—was so sharply defined.
There will be formal send-offs in Rajkot, Bengaluru and elsewhere, yet Pujara himself sounded content enough on Sunday evening. A typically understated farewell, then, for a man who specialised in the understated.
