The year of Cheteshwar Pujara's blossoming

One of the enduring parts of the Cheteshwar Pujara story is that he has never found himself in a state where he can relax or take it easy. Everything has come to him the hard way; a lot of it has seemed transient, hostage to circumstance and the whims of people he cannot control. That probably explains his conservative batting style. This year was supposed to be the year when many well-meaning experts feared he might get sorted out. When all is taken away again.

Just consider what 2018 has done to India's batsmen. It is hard to recall a time when an Indian batting unit faced such consistently difficult conditions for such a long time. Even if you count The Oval among the flatter pitches, India have played nine of their 11 Tests this year in conditions that have tested every batsman. The three openers that began the year are out now. In between they have had a wicketkeeper come out of the cold and open the innings. Their best batsman in all conditions on their last leg of overseas tours has spent the year without a century.

Only two Indian batsmen have come out of 2018 with reputations enhanced. One of them is a genius at the top of his game and fitness. Pujara is the other, gritting his teeth and fighting through every innings, always mindful that one mistake can get him out and all he has is Test cricket. If he goes out, it is really hard for him to force his way back in. He has already started one of the three away series this year out of the XI, and began this one too with the sword of scepticism hanging over his head.

Now that he has scored two centuries in this series - only the second time he has done so overseas, and the first time outside Asia - you'd think Pujara should be a relieved man with the monkey finally off his back, with the pressure from critics and an impatient team management finally off. You couldn't be more wrong.

"I am not relieved because I always knew I can score runs," Pujara said. "It is always good to get those hundreds, but I had always felt that it was only a perception that I score only at home. India plays a lot of Test matches at home; I have always said that. There are times when things become difficult on an overseas tour; it's not easy to score runs, and if you look at the amount of runs scored overseas, the average is also about 300. So as a batsman it is always challenging when you are touring. It is always good to score those runs."

Pujara might be a little off with the word perception. He didn't have the numbers in England and Australia. He had pretty ordinary tours of these countries in 2014; Australia at that time was especially disappointing because that series was played on some of the flattest tracks. And yet it wasn't like he wasn't getting starts. Both in England and Australia, he was doing the first part of his job: playing as a quasi-opener, he shielded Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane from the new ball.

And Pujara has not done much different this time around. He has trusted himself to be solid defensively, wear down the bowlers, suss out the conditions, and then score big. Before the start of the series, the sound of Kohli hitting the ball in the nets went viral, and rightly so. Just as much batting porn was the clip of Pujara's 53 dots before he got off the mark in extremely tough conditions in Johannesburg earlier this year.

WATCH - The #Chesistance: 53 dots in 53 seconds(Indian subcontinent only)

Even here, on a pitch that looks flat from the outside, Pujara respected both the bowlers and the conditions. While there isn't much sideways movement to take edges and not enough bounce to make those edges carry, the pace of the pitch is slow, with the odd ball skidding or kicking off. Pujara took three blows on his fingers. Yet he didn't feel restless to have a go. He attacked only one in 10 balls, the lowest rate for all of his 17 centuries.

He is such a slave to reputation that it wasn't even widely recognised that at 280 balls this was his slowest century, and by some distance, beating his previous 248-ball effort. Pujara is only noticed when he uppercuts a six and IPL jokes abound.

"My job is to score runs, and I will keep scoring runs, whether it is home or away," is his response to his critics. "Sometimes you do get criticised and you just have to accept it. But if you keep scoring runs and if India keeps winning, ultimately everybody is happy."

Pujara just laughs it off when it is suggested that it cannot be said now that he is just a home-track bully. That now he has responded with the only statistic that seems to matter, runs - not the control factor, not the conditions, not the impact his stonewalling has on the bowlers and other batsmen. This is the year when Kohli went out and ruled the world as a batsman, but equally importantly this is the year when Pujara - dropped at various points for Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul or an extra bowler - has finally got himself some well-earned breathing space as an India player. As he said, ultimately, everybody is happy.