How did Cheteshwar Pujara meet his soulmate Puja Pabari? All about the journey of a cricketer's wife

When Puja Pabari first sat down with Arvind Pujara, Cheteshwar’s father, she assumed the meeting was nothing more than family formality. In an ESPNcricinfo interview with Grace Hayden, they couple revealed that their courtship began not with grand gestures but with a candid conversation and mutual curiosity.

Within ninety minutes, “it felt like we were just two good friends,” Puja recalls in the interview. Over the following six weeks, daily calls cemented a relationship neither had anticipated. Today, as they approach their thirteenth wedding anniversary, Puja’s debut book lays bare every milestone: from engagement whispers in Mumbai to sleepless nights in Australia’s Covid bubble.

How did the Pujaras’ meet?

Puja didn’t recognize Cheteshwar’s name when her parents arranged the match in autumn 2012. She met his father, Arvind Pujara, first as Cheteshwar was out for a match. She had initially theorized that he was “not interested” because of this.

When she later met the cricketer, her thoughts changed as she found the conversation “candid, honest” and free of any checklist. Cheteshwar, who had been touring, welcomed Puja’s fresh perspective.

“I wanted to marry someone for who she is rather than the fame I have,” he told Grace Hayden. After an hour-and-a-half chat, they committed to getting to know each other over the next month and a half. Their engagement followed on November 6, 2012; marriage on February 13, 2013, when she took up the surname Pujara.

Cheteshwar and Puja found strength in adversity

As Pujara’s Test career climbed, Puja’s role evolved beyond spectator. During the lows of 2014, when Cheteshwar was under pressure and scrutiny, she studied nutrition to help improve his fitness and offered steady emotional support—never overstepping, but always present. She said she knew she had to “just be there for him the way he needs me to be.”

In early 2018, when their daughter Aditi was ten months old and Cheteshwar faced a family medical emergency mid-series in Australia: his father needed to get an ablation procedure done. Puja balanced hospital visits with match updates—all while nurturing a newborn.

Meanwhile, Cheteshwar had not been told about the matter until the test started. He states, “I didn't know anything about my father's health. I only got to know on the second day of the Sydney Test.” He found himself under a lot of pressure, wondering if he should return: “Do I need to travel back? But she assured me that she was in charge. She knew what she was doing.”

His faith in her abilities allowed him to score over a century during the Sydney Test. Later, during the pandemic-bound 2020-21 tour, Puja also endured marathon days watching him absorb relentless bouncers at the Gabba Test, “sweating and shivering” through every session, yet trusted him to focus on his job.

Behind the scenes of the book

Puja has been journaling since 2013 and granted her husband full editorial freedom. Cheteshwar admits he felt “nervous” opening the manuscript, but reading her accounts of their arranged-marriage genesis and shared trials moved him deeply.

In the author’s note of the book The Diary of a Cricketer's Wife: A Very Unusual Memoir, she writes: “If a smile can do a job, he prefers not to speak. Secretive, yet with nothing to hide…He does not know how to relax, but is always at peace.”

The book unveils what the Pujara’s partnership grew into what it is today, and how it’s been defined by quiet loyalty.

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