Cheteshwar Pujara Net Worth 2026: IPL Salary, BCCI Central Contract, Brand Endorsements, House, Cars & Full Career Earnings
Quick Facts
Category | Verified Figure |
Net worth (2026) | Just an estimate, but unusually settled. Most sources agree on ₹24 crore to ₹30 crore |
Career status | Retired from all forms of Indian cricket, announced August 24, 2025 |
BCCI grade before retirement | Grade B, ₹3 crore a year, down from A+ at his peak |
Total career IPL earnings | ₹12.22 crore across roughly seven seasons |
County cricket | Multiple seasons with Yorkshire and Sussex, including captaining Sussex |
House | Designer home in Rajkot, Gujarat, bought in 2013, valued around ₹4 crore |
Cheteshwar Pujara’s Net Worth 2026 – Overview
The honest range is between ₹24 crore and ₹30 crore. What is interesting here, compared to almost every other cricketer you will read about, is how tight this range actually is. Most active players have net worth estimates that swing by tens of crores between different sites, since their income keeps changing every season. Pujara retired from all forms of cricket in August 2025, so his career earnings are now a closed book rather than a moving target. That is likely the real reason different sites land so close to each other here, there is simply less left to guess about.
So while you should still treat any single number like “Cheteshwar Pujara net worth: ₹27 crore” as an estimate rather than a hard fact, this is one of the more settled figures you will come across in cricket net worth content.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s BCCI Central Contract History
Pujara’s central contract standing tells its own quiet story about how his role in the team changed over the years. At his peak, when he was one of India’s most reliable Test batters, he held a spot in the top A+ grade. . As his appearances became limited almost entirely to Test cricket in his later years, with white ball formats no longer part of his game at the international level, the BCCI moved him down to Grade B, which paid ₹3 crore a year, confirmed specifically for the 2022-23 season.
On top of his grade retainer, he earned match fees for every Test he played, at the standard rate of ₹15 lakh per match.Given he played 103 Tests across his career, match fees alone added up to a substantial and steady part of his income over the years, even without white ball cricket in the mix.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s IPL Career and Earnings
2008-2013: KKR and the RCB Years
Pujara’s IPL story goes all the way back to the league’s very first season. Kolkata Knight Riders signed him as part of their squad in 2008, though he did not actually debut until 2010, scoring 122 runs that year. He then moved to Royal Challengers Bangalore for three seasons starting in 2011, contributing modestly with 34, 17, and 92 runs across those years. It was never a huge role, but it kept him in the IPL system during his rise through domestic and international cricket.
2014: The ₹1.9 Crore Kings XI Punjab Deal
In the 2014 mega auction, Kings XI Punjab, now known as Punjab Kings, signed him for ₹1.9 crore. He played six matches that season, scoring 125 runs, and the team reached their first ever IPL final before losing to KKR.
The Seven Year Gap Without an IPL Team
After that 2014 season, Pujara went unsold in IPL auctions for seven straight years. Rather than chase a T20 contract that was not coming, he leaned into what was actually working for him, county cricket in England, alongside his continued role as India’s dependable Test number three. It is a genuinely unusual stretch for a player of his caliber, going that long without an IPL home while still being a first choice Test player for his country.
2021: The ₹50 Lakh CSK Title Win He Never Played In
Chennai Super Kings surprised a lot of people by picking him up in the 2021 auction at a base price of ₹50 lakh. He never actually made it into CSK’s playing XI that season. Still, CSK won the IPL title that year, which meant Pujara walked away with an IPL winner’s medal, his only one, without playing a single ball for the team.
Total Career IPL Earnings: ₹12.22 Crore
Adding up his contracts across all his IPL seasons, from that first KKR deal through his final CSK contract, Pujara earned a cumulative ₹12.22 crore over roughly thirty IPL matches and seven seasons. This is a specific, well documented figure rather than a rough guess, reflecting a career where the IPL was always a secondary chapter next to his real specialty in the longer format.
The County Cricket Income Stream: Yorkshire and Sussex
This is genuinely one of the more unusual parts of Pujara’s financial story, and it sets him apart from most Indian cricketers covered in net worth pieces like this one, since county cricket rarely shows up as a real income source for players who are also active in the IPL.
Pujara had multiple stints with Yorkshire in England, including their County Championship winning 2015 season, and returned for a second stint in 2018. Later, he became a regular fixture at Sussex, signing there in 2022 and staying through the 2024 season, even captaining the side for parts of his tenure.His numbers there were genuinely excellent, 1,094 runs in just eight matches during the 2022 season at an average of 109.40, including five centuries, and a highest score of 231 against Derbyshire that year. He followed that up with 649 runs in 2023, leading Sussex to a top three finish in County Championship Division Two as captain.
Exact salary figures for county cricket are not usually made public, but based on typical overseas player pay at clubs like Sussex, reasonable estimates put his seasonal earnings there somewhere in the range of a few hundred thousand pounds per year, on top of his BCCI retainer and Test match fees. This was clearly a real and meaningful part of his income during the years he was playing there, not just a way to stay match fit.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s Brand Endorsements
Brand | Category |
SG (Sanspareils Greenlands) | Cricket equipment |
FantasyDangal | Fantasy sports |
These two are the endorsements confirmed across more than one independent source, so treat them as solid. A few older articles, dating back to around 2023, also mention ICICI Lombard, Vivo, and CoinSwitch Kuber, but these come from a single dated source and have not been repeated in more recent coverage, so they are best treated as outdated or unconfirmed rather than part of his current brand portfolio. Pujara was never really positioned as a big commercial name the way IPL stars are, and his endorsement income was always modest compared to his cricket earnings.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s House and Cars
Pujara owns a designer home in Rajkot, Gujarat, bought in 2013, with its value consistently reported at around ₹4 crore across multiple sources. It is where he lives with his wife, daughter, and father, described as surrounded by gardens and built for a quiet, family focused life rather than showy entertaining.
His car collection is notably modest for someone with his career earnings, just a Ford and an Audi, both mentioned consistently but without a lot of specific model or price detail across sources. This fits the same understated personality that shows up throughout his public image, a player who was never chasing the flashy lifestyle that some of his more T20 focused peers built for themselves.
Life After Retirement: Commentary and What’s Next
Since stepping away from playing, Pujara has moved into cricket commentary. As of the 2026 IPL season, he is working as a commentator for Star Sports and JioHotstar, giving him a new, ongoing income stream that most retirement focused coverage of his finances does not mention at all. It is a natural next step for a player known as much for his cricketing intelligence as his batting technique, and it means his financial story is not actually finished just because his playing career is.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s Family
Pujara comes from a genuine cricketing family in Rajkot. His father, Arvind Pujara, and his uncle, Bipin Pujara, both played first-class cricket for Saurashtra, and his father personally coached and mentored him from a young age. His mother passed away from cancer in 2005, when Pujara was just 17, a loss that has been widely described as a defining moment in shaping his resilience and mental toughness at the crease.
He married Puja Pabari, a management graduate, on February 13, 2013, in a private family ceremony in Rajkot. Puja has since built her own career as an author and interior design entrepreneur, publishing a book about life as a cricketer’s wife in 2025. The couple has one daughter, Aditi, born on February 22, 2018. Across his public statements, Pujara has consistently credited his wife’s support in managing family life during his long stretches away for cricket, both in India and during his county cricket seasons abroad.
How Cheteshwar Pujara’s Net Worth Was Built Over His Career
Unlike most players covered in net worth pieces like this, Pujara’s financial story is a completed arc rather than a work in progress. It started modestly, with an unspectacular IPL debut in 2010 and a ₹1.9 crore Kings XI Punjab deal in 2014, income that was always secondary to his real value as a Test specialist. When IPL teams stopped picking him up after 2014, he did not chase a shorter format career that was not suited to his game. Instead he built a genuinely rare secondary income stream through county cricket in England, while continuing to earn a steady BCCI retainer and Test match fees as one of India’s most trusted number three batters for over a decade.
His financial peak came quietly rather than dramatically, a Grade A+ BCCI contract during his best playing years, strong county seasons at Sussex that included some of the best batting of his career in his mid-thirties, and a surprise, unearned IPL winner’s medal with CSK in 2021. By the time he retired in August 2025, his career had produced a settled, well documented net worth in the ₹24 to 30 crore range, and his move into commentary in 2026 shows the earning story is still continuing in a new form even after the playing career ended.
| Period | IPL Status | BCCI Status | Notable Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008-2013 | KKR then RCB | Building international career | IPL debut in 2010 |
| 2014 | Kings XI Punjab, ₹1.9 crore | Established Test player | PBKS reach their first IPL final |
| 2015-2020 | Unsold in IPL auctions | Peak Grade A+ years | Multiple Yorkshire county stints |
| 2021 | CSK, ₹50 lakh, did not play | Grade A+ to Grade B transition | Wins his only IPL title medal |
| 2022-2024 | No IPL contract | Grade B, ₹3 crore a year | Career-best Sussex seasons, captains the county side |
| 2025 | Retired | Contract ended | Announces retirement from all forms of Indian cricket |
| 2026 | Retired | N/A | Begins IPL commentary career with Star Sports and JioHotstar |
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FAQS❓
range between ₹24 crore and ₹30 crore, reflecting the fact that his playing career is now complete.
A specific, well documented ₹12.22 crore across roughly thirty matches and seven seasons, spread across KKR, RCB, Kings XI Punjab, and CSK.
Grade B, paying ₹3 crore a year, a step down from the A+ grade he held at his playing peak, reflecting his role narrowing to Test cricket only in his final seasons.
Yes, and it was a genuinely significant part of his income. He played multiple seasons for Yorkshire, including their title winning 2015 campaign, and later for Sussex from 2022 through 2024, where he also served as captain for part of his tenure.
SG and FantasyDangal are the two confirmed across multiple sources. A few older, single-sourced claims about other brands from around 2023 have not been repeated in more recent coverage.
He has moved into cricket commentary, working with Star Sports and JioHotstar for IPL coverage as of the 2026 season.
