Cheteshwar Pujara brought the curtains down on his impressive India career late last month. A pillar of India’s Test team for over a decade, Pujara’s calm presence and unwavering focus made him one of the most dependable batters of his generation.

The 37-year-old represented India in 103 Tests, scoring 7195 runs at an average of 43.60 with the help of 19 hundreds and 35 half-centuries. The highlight of his career was the critical role he played in India’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy triumphs on Australian soil in 2018-19 and 2020-21.

Pujara’s last appearance for India was in 2023 during the World Test Championship Final against Australia at The Oval. Subsequently, he fell out of favour with the national selectors.

Despite not being part of India's Test set-up, Pujara continued playing Ranji Trophy for Saurashtra and county cricket for Sussex. However, he was ignored for the challenging tours of Australia and England.

Meanwhile, former India cricketer Robin Uthappa recently opined that Cheteshwar Pujara 'overextended his stay' and should have announced his retirement a little earlier.

Uthappa acknowledged Pujara’s immense contribution to Indian Test team, but pointed out that he should have retired after being overlooked for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024.

"I think he overextended his stay a little bit. I think it was communicated to him that he will not be considered anymore and this England tour was the final straw. It seemed very bleak for Indian cricket to go back to him, Rahane, at the start of a new cycle. I reckoned when he didn't get picked in that Australia tour, he could have called it time. But obviously, it is very hard," Uthappa said on YouTube.

Beyond his international exploits, Pujara built a monumental legacy in domestic cricket. In 278 first-class appearances, he aggregated 21,301 runs at an average of 51.82, including 66 centuries and 81 fifties.

A true red-ball specialist, Pujara also left a notable mark in List A cricket, scoring 5759 runs from 130 matches with 16 tons and 34 half-centuries. However, he got only five matches to prove his worth in ODIs.

Uthappa narrated an incident from a Karnataka versus Saurashtra match in 2009-10 to highlight Pujara's brilliance.

"I remember it was a first-class game in 2009-10, it was Karnataka versus Saurashtra and he got a triple hundred. He was batting 200-odd end of day's play. I went early in the morning to have a hit. This guy comes and rocks up at 7:30 in the morning after having scored a double hundred and batted the same amount of time that I batted before going into bat for the game. For him as a personality, he was obsessed with batting and being not out," Uthappa remarked.