'No big ego, I've seen Hashim Amla go unsold': When Cheteshwar Pujara opened up on being ignored at IPL auction

Cheteshwar Pujara poses for a photo with family ahead of his 100th Test appearance (BCCI Photo)

"Intent", research shows, is the second most used word in Indian cricket after "process" and it could loosely mean anything. Lack of purpose, negative mindset and you can continue finding loopholes till the cows come home. It’s another issue that Anil Kumble during his time as the chief coach of the Indian cricket team had said that strike-rate doesn’t matter in the longest format.

For “Pujara Lovers”, a gang that outnumbered his critics by a fair yard, the Saurashtra player was about classic Test match batting. Some of these people are Test cricket connoisseurs, some love a good scrap and others simply love the idea of someone slightly less gifted making a statement on their behalf.

It is perhaps fair to say that we all have a certain soft corner for the ‘Have Nots’ and in cricketing parlance, Pujara was one of them. Someone who played 100 Test matches and despite his top performances in the most revered format franchises ignored him till Chennai Super Kings picked him after three years of going unsold at auctions. He was one of his kind.

In Pics | Carrying the bat and copping blows: The best knocks of India legend Cheteshwar Pujara

He did not have an A contract. With a 50-plus List A average, he was still never considered for white-ball cricket. There is a sense of injustice among his fans, the more pragmatic ones will call it perception while some would term it sentiment.

Otherwise, how would you be able to explain why on a day when Chris Morris raked in a multi million dollar deal, the IPL auction had a different zing when Chennai Super Kings picked him at his base price of Rs 50 lakh, nearly one fourth of what former U-19 India captain Priyam Garg fetched at the previous auction. Kyle Jamieson and Glen Maxwell together were paid 30 crores while Pujara was bought for his base price with just one bidder showing interest in him. There was a collective applause for Chennai Super Kings when they bid for the ‘Test specialist’.

The generous round of clapping might seem to be a nice gesture from the other franchises but it was more out of guilt, for having branded him as a one format specialist when he had scored a hundred in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy.

In Pics | From Virat Kohli to Cheteshwar Pujara: List of cricket stars who retired this year

Earlier this year I had a chat with him about this. I asked if he felt disillusioned and frustrated by the fact that in the IPL others decide his fate. "As a cricketer, I can't have that opinion. Also I feel that I am someone who will never have an ego because I have seen and known IPL auctions to be tricky," Pujara said.

"I have seen world class players like Hashim Amla go unsold at the auction. There have been lots of good T20 players who have missed out in an auction. So I don't have any big ego that they are not picking me.”

What he did say, however, was that perception was perhaps the determining factor in franchises overlooking him for a good three years. And yet he was never bitter. Along with his many qualities - patience, resilience, passion and ability to bat long, to not be bitter should also be celebrated by everyone who follows the sport globally. Pujara is a rare breed and there won’t be another.