Cheteshwar Pujara

He just took it cleanly and, uh, that's probably the greatest leg slip catch we'll ever see.

2023, Cheteshwar Pujara at indoor.

The number one catch of Steve Smith's test career.

Well, saw it live, never forget, in Perth at Optus, flying full stretch to his right with the pink ball.

The number one catch of Steve Smith's career, 2019, Kane Williamson in Perth.

So terrific countdown.

Kane Williamson, Cheteshwar Pujara, Kyle Verreynne, David Milan, and Moeen Ali, the five best catches of Steve Smith's test career in the estimation of Simon Katich.

With an eye toward what is about to happen today, Nick Maddinson is a big figure, so Australia would turn its eye to Dave Warner in a previous generation.

It is right amongst it, live and exclusive, Fox Cricket, Kayo at the moment.

But the, the other point that was made out the back of that is that he's done this sort of stuff before, and the obvious example, and the privilege of calling one of those today, but the Pujara catch, which was match-winning at indoor a couple of years ago.

So, and that's the standard that they want.

That, just to segue away from Smith to the bigger picture here.

bat all

day, made 80 runs, right? I think Pujara

was the last of the...

Actually, Pujara's strike rate used to be very good.

Unfortunately, he didn't able to make it that way.

Actually, if you look at his test strike rate and first class strike rate, there will be a slight difference of 4-5 points.

No question.

Cheteshwar Pujara, Rahane, he just-

He didn't, he didn't even front.

He's a quiet, introverted sort of guy.

I mean, he took so much blows on the-

Yes.

Pat Cummins has gone on record last week of saying, "The most difficult batsman for me to bowl to is Cheteshwar Pujara." That must count for something.

But, you know, uh, Sa- Sayres-

Kohli.

Uh, Yadav and Pujara make up the middle order.

The Big Stein, he's back.

Ah, good to see.

... you have a look at this lineup, Luke.

Yeah.

Virat Kohli, Yadav, Pujara.

Yeah.

That's a great point you make about, like, partnerships and batting.

And I know Kohli's talked about how important Pujara was for him.

Yeah.

And you think of how important Dravid would be for-

But when they had...

Do you remember that season when they basically allocated a batting spot and a bowling spot to the overseas? There was Pujara, and there was Daniel Hughes, and then there was Nathan McAndrew, and Jayavant Yadkar, and Jaden Seales.

So they basically said, "We're gonna have 14 games out of a batter and 14 games out of a bowler, but we accept that it's no longer possible to get someone gunned for a whole summer." Unless you've got, like, the Bedding relationship that he's got with Durham or Harmer-

Yes

And it left India with a real vacuum in their batting line-up.

You could imagine maybe other selection panels going back at that point to a Cheteshwar Pujara or a Ajinkya Rahane just for that series.

And they didn't do that.

They had decided to move on from these guys by then and they stuck with that.

So, I mean, all the squads now seem like they're fairly settled, right? Like for the 27 ODI World Cup, it's not going to be that tougher task, I would think, for the new panel coming in.

Yeah, I mean, it's a kind of luxury of being a selector in India that like, see, I mean, think about it, that you lost an entire generation of great, great players.

Not an entire, almost an entire generation with those three guys who retired during and after that Australia tour, right? Kohli, Rohit and Ashwin, right? And before that, you'd seen Pujara, Rahane, Ishaan Sharma, all these people go out.

It's a bit of a luxury to be a selector in India that you still have enough people to choose from.