Cheteshwar Pujara is a lucky man—not only did his patient knock of 56 contribute to India’s win in the last Test match in Brisbane, but also, when he comes home, his daughter would be ready with the perfect remedy for his pain: ‘I will kiss where he is hurt, he will be fine.”
Having seen her father take blows to his body from deadly Australian fast bowlers, two-year-old Aditi truly believes that her method will help him heal as Pujara told the Indian Express that that’s what he does whenever she has a fall.
“That’s what I do to her when she falls, so she believes that a kiss can heal every wound,” he said.
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Pujara, nursing a swollen finger and bruised shoulder, took 11 blows to his body while batting in the last match of the four-match series at the Gabba.
“From my early days, I am not in the habit of taking pain-killers. That’s why my threshold to bear pain is pretty high. You play for so long, you get used to getting hit,” the cricketer told IE. His father Arvind, a former first-class cricketer, has echoes the same sentiment, adding that only if the doctors insists will his son take pain-killers.
India would have retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy even if it had drawn the match against Australia. However, it was important for a depleted Indian team, with all odds stacked against them, to take on the home team and win the series for a second consecutive time in Australian soil.
Pujara played a crucial and mature innings, building up his 114-run partnership with Shubman Gill, who scored 91 to keep India within sight of victory. Rishabh Pant scored the winning boundary as India successfully chased down the 328-run target.
