As Cheteshwar Pujara announced his retirement from cricket on August 24, 2025, messages of appreciation flowed in for the man who has been referred to as the last great Test match purist. For 13 years, his bat was India's wall of resistance, constructed on patience, technique, and a near-meditative calm at the crease. Even the strongest wall faces challenges, and Pujara has revealed the four bowlers who pushed him to his limits In an open conversation with The Times of India, the 37-year-old shocked everyone by omitting the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell Starc. Instead, he chose Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, James Anderson, and Pat Cummins as the hardest his career. The statistics speak for themselves. Against Steyn and Morkel, Pujara averaged a mere 30 and 19, the South African pair dismissing him six times. Anderson was his most regular foe, removing him 12 times in Tests and bringing his average against England down to 29. Cummins, on the other hand, was in control in his recent Border-Gavaskar encounters, dismissing him eight times and maintaining his average at a mere 22.50. Also Read | 'Bring Back Ishan Kishan': BCCI's Last-Minute Shuffle, Major Changes to Duleep Trophy Squad But what gives this discovery a flair is the fact that Pujara also built some of his finest innings against these very same players. His match-saving 123 at Adelaide in 2018 was against an attack spearheaded by Cummins. His tough 153 at Johannesburg in 2013 was built against Steyn and Morkel in their most menacing mood. Across 103 Tests, Pujara scored 7,195 runs at an average of 43.60, with 19 centuries. But his legacy goes much beyond the numbers. He once faced 525 balls in an innings most by an Indian turning Test cricket into a battle of endurance. Interestingly, no spinner figured in his toughest-bowlers list, despite Nathan Lyon disposing him 13 times. For Pujara, the real trial came not from turn but from the relentless probing of world-class fast men.