Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara’s on-field and off-field bonding has been quite heartwarming to watch over the years. Recently, during a book launch event of ‘The Diary of a Cricketer’s Wife’ authored by Pujara’s wife Pooja in Mumbai on Thursday, which Rohit too attended, he recalled a ligh-hearted anecdote from 2012 when India A toured the West Indies.
“I’m sure it’s not written in the book. Is there anything regarding the West Indies tour of India A in 2012? What happened?” Rohit asked Pujara. “I haven’t told. I mean, she is aware, but she doesn’t know the details,” Pujara responded.
Recalling the incident, Pujara said, I am a vegetarian. So we were looking for a vegetarian meal at night. It was in TNT (Trinidad and Tobago) where we went out at 11 in the evening. We didn’t find the meal, but when we were walking back, I was mugged. I can’t tell you in detail about it, but that’s the story he is referring to.”
“Moral of the story is that he can be stubborn,” Rohit said. “We told him. We warned him not to go out at night. Don’t step out after 9 PM. This is the West Indies,” he added.
Rohit said he and his teammates spent most of their time plotting how to dismiss the sturdy Saurashtra batter who would go onto form the backbone of India’s Test line-up for nearly a decade.
“I still remember, team meetings only revolved around him (on) how to get him out, and if we don’t get him out, probably we’d lose the game,” said Rohit.
The former India skipper added that even his mother would feel worried by his physical conditions after having gone up against Pujara on the field.
“All I remember is that when I used to go to the ground, when I was 14-years-old, and when I came back in the evening, the colour of my face would be completely different,” he said.
“Because he used to bat all day and we used to field in the sun for (even) 2-3 days. I still remember that my mother asked me a couple of times that when you go to play from home, you look different and when you come home, after a week or 10 days, you look different.
“I would say, ‘mom, what do I do? There’s a batsman by the name of Cheteshwar Pujara. He’s been batting for three days’… so that is the first impression that we had of him,” Rohit remarked.
