Pujara Urges IPL Youngsters To Chase India Call-Up

A 13-year-old turning heads in the IPL can make Indian cricket feel wildly impatient.

That is why Cheteshwar Pujara has offered young players a simple reminder. Play the IPL, learn from it, earn well from it, but do not shrink the dream to one tournament.

For Pujara, the bigger shirt still matters. He wants the next wave to aim for Team India, and not just a franchise contract.

Pujara’s warning to young stars

Pujara said young cricketers must keep updating their game. He was speaking about names like Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre, who have entered public attention very early.

His point was not anti-IPL. Far from it. He called the league important because it gives players exposure, pressure, money, and a proper stage.

But he also said preparation should not stop at T20 cricket. India has World Cups to win, in both ODI and T20 formats. A young player should want to help India lift those trophies.

That sounds obvious, but it matters. The IPL has become the fastest road to fame in Indian cricket. One fearless innings can create a brand overnight.

The danger is also clear. A player can start training only for short bursts, big hits, and instant impact. International cricket asks for more patience and more range.

Why IPL still helps India

Pujara rejected the idea that the IPL has damaged Test cricket. That argument appears every season, usually when a young batter plays a risky shot or a bowler goes for runs.

He took the opposite view. He said the IPL has helped India find players who later became serious red-ball performers.

He pointed to Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Mohammed Shami. All 3 made their names stronger through the league and later became central to India’s Test plans.

That is an important reminder. T20 does not automatically make a player shallow. It can also sharpen nerves, improve fitness, and expose talent to top opposition.

A young fast bowler learns quickly when he bowls at the death to world-class hitters. A batter learns when he faces mystery spin in front of 50,000 people.

The IPL is not the problem. Narrow thinking is the problem. If a player sees it as a finishing school, it helps. If he sees it as the final destination, it limits him.

Age cannot be the only filter

Pujara also spoke about selection, and here he sounded like a man who has lived through Indian cricket’s harsh cycles.

He said teams must balance seniors and juniors. Performance should matter more than age, whether the player is 21 or 36.

If a young player keeps performing, selectors must consider him. If an experienced player struggles for long and cannot correct his game, alternatives become fair.

But Pujara warned against pushing seniors out only because they are older. If they still perform, age alone should not become a reason to drop them.

That is a sensible position in Indian cricket’s current climate. Every IPL season creates fresh public pressure. Fans see a teenager hit sixes and ask why he is not already in blue.

Selection rooms cannot work like social media timelines. They must judge form, format, role, temperament, and dressing-room balance.

A Test team needs grit. A T20 team needs speed. An ODI team needs players who can change gears across 50 overs.

The best Indian teams have usually mixed both ends. They had young players with hunger and senior players with scars. That combination wins long tournaments.

The commentator sees the homework

Pujara also opened up about his shift to commentary. That part is quietly revealing, because it shows how seriously he studies cricket even away from the pitch.

He said talking cricket is not difficult for him. The harder part was learning how to analyse players for viewers.

As a player, he had little time in the middle. In the commentary box, he must explain patterns, methods, and changes in a player’s game.

So he studies players before speaking about them. He looks at how they play, what they have done before, and where their game is moving now.

That is the sort of preparation viewers rarely notice. Good commentary is not just polished talk. It needs memory, context, and the discipline to avoid lazy labels.

It also explains why Pujara’s comments on youngsters carry weight. He is not reacting to one highlight clip. He is watching how careers are built.

Mumbai Indians and the comeback question

Pujara also addressed Mumbai Indians, whose uneven form has become a familiar IPL talking point.

He accepted that Mumbai have not played at their best. But he did not call it a major worry, especially after their strong win against Lucknow.

His advice was simple. The players need to sit together, review their plans, and find a way back as a group.

That sounds basic, but Mumbai’s IPL history runs on exactly that idea. They have often looked ordinary early and dangerous later.

Pujara said form can disappear for a while. Once players regain rhythm, Mumbai can become very hard to stop.

For fans, that is the IPL’s old lesson. A team is never only as good as last week’s points table. Momentum can flip quickly, especially when big players return to form.

For young cricketers watching all this, the message is bigger than one franchise. The league can open the door, but it cannot teach ambition by itself.

Indian cricket now has more teenage attention than ever before. That is exciting, but it also brings noise, comparison, and early judgment.

Pujara’s advice cuts through that noise. Enjoy the IPL lights, but keep looking beyond them. The real test is not one season of applause. It is whether a young player can grow enough to win matches for India when the whole country is waiting.