Cheteshwar Pujara retires: Mitchell Starc's wife Alyssa Healy makes a startling revelation - 'He drained...'

Australia women’s team captain Alyssa Healy and wife of Mitchell Starc made a startling revelation about how the men's cricket team planned Cheteshwar Pujara's wicket. Pujara on Sunday announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.Known for his defensive technique and ability to tire out bowlers, Pujara amassed 7,195 runs in 103 Tests at an average of 43.60, including 19 centuries and 35 fifties, making him India's eighth-highest Test run-getter.Pujara brought his absolute A game in Australia, where this perennial stonewaller scored 993 runs in 11 Tests at an average of 47.28, with three centuries and five fifties. He faced a massive 2,657 balls in the Aussie land, overcoming every blow, every hoop the bowling quartet of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon put him through. He scored his runs at a strike rate of 37.37, and his balls per dismissal went upto 126.5, the best among the 66 overseas batters who have played at least 15 innings in Australia since 1990.The 2018-19 tour to Australia was a monumental one, as not only did India lift the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia for the first time under Virat, but Pujara's 521-run campaign also served as a massive highlight, with an average of 74.42, including a best score of 193 and three centuries, one fifty. He faced a massive 1,258 deliveries across seven innings, being the only batter to cross the 1,000-ball mark.Pujara's top score is 206. He is the only Indian to bat for more than 500 balls when he scored that 202 off 525 balls, which is almost batting for 88 overs."I don't have the mental fortitude to be able to do that. When you put it like that, that's wild," Healy said on the "Willow Talk" podcast."And he was a huge part of those two series wins against Australia, because he kept that bowling attack out and drained them and made them work so hard."And I think by the end of it, they just stopped trying to get him out and tried to get the other end out because they just figured it was too hard."When asked if Pujara is the last of a dying breed, given every young cricketer around the world, especially from India, is fed a huge diet of T20 cricket, Healy said: "I wouldn't have thought so. I think more often now it's how do I score? And you still look at Test cricket now, we spoke about it last summer, like McSweeney (Nathan) came in and sort of got stuck, Marnus (Labuschagne) came in, got stuck, and all we spoke about was they need to look to score first."Whereas I think that conversation has changed over the years. It probably used to be, how do we keep him out? How do I bat for long periods of time? So no, I don't think we necessarily will see someone like that again."But you think about the guys in world cricket at the moment who play similar sorts of roles — Joe Root, Steve Smith in our group. They play a similar sort of anchor role and let the guys sort of flourish around them, which I think is a really important role."