{"id":23541,"date":"2025-11-08T11:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T11:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/08\/did-shah-rukh-khan-save-cheteshwar-pujaras-cricket-career-he-offered-him-to-cricket-news\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T11:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T11:05:10","slug":"did-shah-rukh-khan-save-cheteshwar-pujaras-cricket-career-he-offered-him-to-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/08\/did-shah-rukh-khan-save-cheteshwar-pujaras-cricket-career-he-offered-him-to-cricket-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Shah Rukh Khan Save Cheteshwar Pujara’s Cricket Career? ‘He Offered Him To…’ | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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How Shah Rukh Khan and KKR saved young Cheteshwar Pujara\u2019s career after a 2009 injury \u2014 even flying his family to South Africa for surgery before he became India\u2019s Test mainstay.<\/h2>\n
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News18<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have made themselves one of the beloved destinations for many IPL-level players, not just because of their history and legacy of winning titles, but also their treatment of the players. Several atheletes, past and present, have spoken about how the franchise took care of them in their hardest times \u2014 most, like Rinku Singh, are loyal to them for that very reason.<\/p>\n

Now, it has been revealed that Cheteshwar Pujara, who never played for KKR, had a similar story. In 2009, a 21-year-old Pujara joined the franchise after a brilliant domestic season, eager to make his IPL debut. During a practice match, he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) \u2014 a serious knee injury among atheletes with recovery times that range upto a year, infamous of ruining many careers, especially in sports involving running.<\/p>\n

\u201cDestiny impelled him to dash heedlessly to a ball for a catch that was never there; and the result: a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, an impending surgery and a temporarily halted cricketing career \u2014 all without playing a single game for KKR,” Cheteshwar\u2019s wife, Puja Pujara, wrote in The Diary of a Cricketer\u2019s Wife.<\/em><\/p>\n

KKR immediately took charge, arranging for his surgery in Cape Town, where specialists treated sports injuries. Pujara\u2019s father was initially hesitant, wanting the operation done in his hometown of Rajkot, but Shah Rukh Khan personally convinced him that South Africa offered the best care.<\/p>\n

The franchise handled passports, visas, and travel, even flying Pujara\u2019s father and family doctor with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cShah Rukh also told me that Chintu had a great future ahead of him and should have the best available medical treatment. When he realised I was worried about the absence of a support system in South Africa and my faith in Dr Shah\u2019s abilities, he offered to fly him and any family members I wanted with me,” Pujara\u2019s father is quoted as saying in the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll also fly down anyone you want for the surgery. We\u2019ll pay them here so that you have your own people around you,” a representative told Pujara\u2019s family, as mentioned in the book.<\/p>\n

The surgery succeeded, and Pujara fully recovered, later establishing himself as a key Test batsman for India. He retired only recently<\/p>\n

First Published:<\/span><\/p>\n
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November 08, 2025, 16:33 IST<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

News<\/a> cricket<\/a> Did Shah Rukh Khan Save Cheteshwar Pujara’s Cricket Career? ‘He Offered Him To…’<\/span><\/div>\n
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Last Updated:November 08, 2025, 16:33 IST How Shah Rukh Khan and KKR saved young Cheteshwar Pujara\u2019s career after a 2009 injury \u2014 even flying his family to South Africa for surgery before he became India\u2019s Test mainstay. News18 Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have made themselves one of the beloved destinations for many IPL-level players, not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}