Pujara and Hazlewood were teammates in the IPL 2021 season.
Former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara recalled a humorous net practice incident with Australian fast bowler Josh Hazlewood during their time together at the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
During India's historic, back-to-back Test series victories in Australia (2018/19 and 2020/21), Pujara acted as an unstoppable wall for the Indian batting line-up. He faced over 900 balls in the 2020/21 series alone, thoroughly exhausting the Australian bowling attack, including Hazlewood.
When Pujara was picked up by CSK for the 2021 season, he unexpectedly became teammates with Hazlewood, who refused to run in against his familiar rival in the training nets claiming he had already bowled far too many exhausting overs to him.
"During the Australia series in 2018 and 2021, I played a lot against Josh Hazlewood. Then I got picked by CSK. The first time I went to bat in the nets, Hazlewood refused to bowl to me. He said, 'I won't bowl to him.' Even though he was my teammate, he refused. He joked that he had bowled to me far too much over the previous few months before the IPL, so he was not going to bowl to me again. He was kidding, but he actually did not bowl to me," Pujara said while speaking on JioHotstar.
Cheteshwar Pujara also recalled meeting Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) co-owner Shah Rukh Khan during his stint with the franchise, admitting that meeting him was a "fanboy moment".
Pujara represented KKR in the 2009/10 IPL season, scoring 122 runs in six innings at an average of 30.50, with a strike rate of 106.08 and a best score of 45*.
"I started with KKR. Shah Rukh Khan was the owner there. When I met him for the first time, I definitely had that fanboy moment. But when you think about cricket, you can't think, 'Just because Shah Rukh Khan is the owner, I want to stay here.'," he remarked.