Cheteshwar Pujara, a professional cricketer, is a right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm off-break bowler. He was born on January 25, 1988 in Rajkot, Gujarat and is nicknamed ‘Chintu’. He attended Virani School, Rajkot and cleared his SSC (Class X) during his first attempt in first-class. Cheteshwar Pujara comes from a family of cricketers; while his grandfather Shivlal Pujara played for Dhrangadhra, his father Arvind Pujara and uncle Bipin played for Saurashtra at the First-class level.
In 2005 Cheteshwar Pujara played in the inaugural Afro-Asia Under-19 (U-19) Cup, which was won by India. He also played in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka and emerged as the Man of the Tournament. Cheteshwar Pujara was the highest scorer of the tournament with 349 runs at an average of 116.33. His run tally included an unbeaten 129 against England, one of the five centuries scored in the tournament, and a 97 against the West Indies.
Cheteshwar Pujara fine tuned his talent by playing at the Railway ground in Rajkot under the guidance of his father. He initially focused on leg spin bowling, but as he was better with the bat, he was advised by his father and other experts to concentrate more on batting. Cheteshwar Pujara began playing for Saurashtra at the junior level and came into prominence in the cricketing world, when he scored a triple century, an unbeaten 306, which was a national record, against Baroda during the 2000-01 season. He continued to compile big scores, including 211 against England Under-19 and 145 against Goa in only his second First-class match.
Cheteshwar Pujara made his Twenty20 (T20) debut for Saurashtra against Maharashtra in Mumbai on April 4, 2007. He was signed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders in March 2008.
