Cheteshwar Pujara recalls his 'fanboy moment' meeting Shah Rukh Khan

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Former Team India cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara recalled the moment when he first met Indian superstar and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) co-owner Shah Rukh Khan.

Speaking about his “fanboy moment” with Khan on JioHotstar, the former cricketer also said that a player chooses to stay with the franchise because of the environment that it creates.

“I started with KKR. Shah Rukh Khan was the owner there. When I met him for the first time, I definitely had that fanboy moment. But when you think about cricket, you can’t think, ‘Just because Shah Rukh Khan is the owner, I want to stay here.’ You want to be there because of the environment the franchise creates, the opportunity to learn from legendary players, play alongside them, and improve your cricket. That is what matters,” said the 38-year-old former cricketer.

Later in his career, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) acquired his services, but he didn’t play a single match for the team. He shared an incident in CSK’s training session, when Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood refused to bowl against him.

“During the Australia series in 2018 and 2021, I played a lot against Josh Hazlewood. Then I got picked by CSK. The first time I went to bat in the nets, Hazlewood refused to bowl to me. He said, ‘I won’t bowl to him.’ Even though he was my teammate, he refused. He joked that he had bowled to me far too much over the previous few months before the IPL, so he was not going to bowl to me again. He was kidding, but he actually did not bowl to me,” said Pujara.

Cheteshwar Pujara’s statistics in international cricket

The Rajkot-born cricketer announced his retirement from international cricket with 7195 Test runs. He represented the country in 103 Test matches and registered 35 half-centuries along with 19 tons. His top score in the longest format of the game is an unbeaten 206 runs.

Pujara also donned the Indian ODI colours in five matches. With 51 runs to his name, his top score in the 50-over format is 27 runs.

(With ANI Inputs)

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