Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara has not achieved success overnight. The 30-year-old had to struggle a lot to reach where he is now. Pujara recently talked about the sacrifices he had to make in his journey to represent his country.

The Rajkot-born has a strict father who hardly allowed him to do anything which could end up injuring him. Pujara wasn't even allowed to celebrate a festival. 

"I would say that he was very strict, especially in my early days. I was never allowed to go anywhere and celebrate any festivals. I was never allowed to participate in the kite flying festival or burst firecrackers during Diwali because if I suffered any injury I wouldn't have been able to go for the practice the following day," he said.

But as the time passed, Cheteshwar's father, Arvind Pujara, got a little easy on him. His father had to understand that cricketers also need to chill out.

"I had so many restrictions in my early days, but it helped me focus on my game. And now, we have come to terms where now he is a bit liberal about what I do. He understands that there are times when cricketers need to relax a bit. So now we have a good rapport," he said.

Talking further about his father's role in shaping up his career, he said, "Not just as a coach but even as a father, he was helped me a lot. When I was seventeen I lost my mother. It wasn't easy to go through that phase but mentally he was very strong and we kept working on my game. He has a huge role to play in my life and cricket as well."

The Saurashtra batsman also said that his father doesn't want to talk about anything other than cricket with him. 

"Whenever he talks, he will just talk about cricket. If you ask him anything apart from cricket, with respect to me, I don't think he will be able to answer that. My fans will know more about my hobbies than my father," he said.