Ravichandran Ashwin reveals what nickname he gave to Cheteshwar Pujara after 2018-19 tour of Australia

India’s former veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin revealed he gave the sobriquet of ‘Whitewalker’ to Cheteshwar Pujara after the 2018-19 tour of Australia. According to the popular show, Game of Thrones, White Walkers are supernatural, humanoid race of beings from the far north of Westeros.

India’s former number three played a key role in India’s maiden Test series win on Australian soil. Pujara scored 521 runs in four Test matches against the Aussies at an average of 74.43, including three centuries and thus was awarded Player of the Series. 

The Saurashtra batter faced a monumental 1258 deliveries in seven innings on that tour and looked invincible.

“The 2018-19 tour of Australia has to be a defining point in Pujara’s career. He had made a double hundred during England’s tour of India in 2012, but the 2018-19 Australia series, it was a memorable one because the Australia bowlers were not able to get him out. In the last Test in Sydney, the bowlers literally had to tell Pujara to please get out. Literally, it went there,” Ashwin said in a tribute video on his YouTube channel.

“I gave Pujara a name after that series, we had a good relationship, like we used to pull each others legs. He was pulling my leg on commentary also recently. That is the kind of relationship we have, so the nickname I gave him, inspired by Game of Thrones, was ‘The White Walker’. Literally after that tour, Pujara was the White Walker of Indian cricket, if not the world cricket,” he continued.

On the other hand, Ashwin believes players like Pujara go under the radar as the spotlight has always been on stars like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

“Whenever we talk about Indian cricket, it is easy to talk about Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma. Even in the past, it was Sachin Tendulkar, I mean he was an icon, but players like Pujara don’t come around quite often. But, we don’t talk about them too much. That is a bit of a concern,” Ashwin added.

Pujara played 103 Tests and 5 ODIs for India after making his debut back in 2010. He scored 7,195 Test runs at an average of 43.60, with 19 hundreds and 35 fifties.