When Cheteshwar Pujara announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on August 24, 2025, tributes poured in for the man often called the last great Test match purist. For 13 years, his bat stood as India’s wall of resistance, built on patience, technique, and an almost meditative calm at the crease. But even the strongest wall has a few cracks, and Pujara himself has now revealed the four bowlers who pushed him to his limits.

Chesteshwar Pujara names the quartet that troubled him most

In a candid chat with The Times of India, the 37-year-old surprised many by leaving out names like Jasprit bumrah and Mitchell Starc. Instead, he picked Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, James Anderson, and Pat Cummins as the toughest opponents of his career.

The numbers tell their own story. Against Steyn and Morkel, Pujara averaged just 30 and 19, with the South African duo dismissing him six times. Anderson proved his most frequent nemesis, removing him 12 times in Tests and dragging his average against England down to 29. Cummins, meanwhile, had the upper hand in his last Border-Gavaskar contests, dismissing him eight times and keeping his average at just 22.50.

Pujara’s defiance against the very best

Yet what makes this revelation compelling is that Pujara also crafted some of his greatest innings against these same names. His heroic 123 at Adelaide in 2018 came against an attack led by Cummins. His gritty 153 at Johannesburg in 2013 was forged against Steyn and Morkel at their fiercest.

Across 103 Tests, Pujara scored 7,195 runs at an average of 43.60, with 19 centuries. But his legacy is far greater than numbers. He once faced 525 balls in a single innings—the most by an Indian—turning Test cricket into a battle of endurance. Interestingly, no spinner made his toughest-bowlers list, despite Nathan Lyon dismissing him 13 times. For Pujara, the real trial came not from turn but from the relentless probing of world-class fast men.