Former Indian top-order batter Cheteshwar Pujara has strolled down memory lane to his Indian Premier League (IPL) playing days, revealing the late-night party culture after winning the day-night matches.
Speaking exclusively on JioHotstar’s ‘Cheeky Singles’ episode, Pujara disclosed that his father had taught him to get up early and go for practice every day. However, everything turned out to be completely different at the cash-rich league for the former batter.
“My dad started coaching me when I was eight. He had taught me to get up early and go for practice every day. In IPL, there are day-night matches, and after matches, there are parties as well. The party starts at 1:30 or 2 AM. I would reach first as I am punctual, but no one would be there, and everyone would come by 3. I would stay for a while and leave. I had the habit of getting up early, so I would be up by 7:30. I went for breakfast, and a lot of players came. I thought I was not the only one who got up early in the morning for breakfast. Then I realised none of them even slept [the whole night] and came directly for breakfast and would sleep after that,” Pujara said on JioHotstar’s Cheeky Singles episode.
Notably, Pujara played for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2021 season, but couldn’t make it to the starting XI, and it was his last stint in the cash-rich league. Furthermore, the former cricketer also revealed his fanboy moment with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) co-owner Shah Rukh Khan.
“I think every player has a fanboy moment. I started with KKR and SRK was the owner, so when I met him, definitely I had the fanboy moment. But when you think of cricket, you can’t think of being there because he is the owner. You want to be there because of the environment. I wanted to stay there because of that. But you can’t deny the fanboy moment,” he added.
