A prodigious scorer on the domestic circuit, Pujara’s reputation has preceded his arrival on the international scene. He comes from a pedigreed cricketing family - his father Arvind Pujara played for Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy. Cheteshwar, too, went on to make his first class-debut for the same team in 2005, having shown a flair for scoring big from an early age. He started hitting triple tons at the age of 13, hammering an unbeaten 306 against Baroda at an Under-14 tournament. Then, at the Under-19 World Cup in 2006, he bagged the Man-of-the-Series award by amassing 349 runs at an average of 116.00. He scored more than 800 runs in the 2007-08 Ranji season which earned him the ‘Most Promising Youngster of the Year’ award. But it was in the 2008-09 season that he set domestic cricket on fire by scoring three triple tons and more than 900 Ranji runs.

A call-up to the Indian Test team for the Australia series of 2010 followed - Pujara earned a spot in the playing eleven of the Bengaluru Test in place of an injured VVS Laxman. Having been dismissed for a mere four runs in the first innings, Pujara, promoted to No.3 in the second innings, played a clinical knock of 72 runs that saw India pull off a tricky chase of 207 in the fourth innings. It was arguably the most compact innings by an Indian batsman on debut since Rahul Dravid first appeared for India at Lord’s in 1996.