The rise of Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwara Pujara was in the news for his two triple-centries in a week during the Under-22 CK Nayudu Trophy last month. He is currently the leading scorer in this season's Ranji Trophy after an unbeaten 302 against Orissa and a 182-ball 189 against Punjab. Sandeep Dwivedi, of the Indian Express, travelled to the Pujara home in Rajkot to discover the story behind the big numbers.

The prospect of buying a new bat didn’t appeal to the father’s pocket. Arvind requested the Cheteshwar’s school to lend his son the team bat. "It was a bit embarrassing for me since they weren’t too forthcoming. But after several requests they relented, and with that borrowed bat Cheteshwar scored his first triple hundred - 306 not out against Baroda," says Arvind before fishing out that old bat - a BDM that the school gifted to Cheteshwar after that.