One of the best hitters in Test cricket, Cheteshwar Pujara has excelled for India throughout the years. Due to his dismal performance with the bat during the South Africa series, the experienced Indian hitter was benched for the Test series against Sri Lanka. Pujara’s recent Test century came in 2019, but he did manage to reach the nineties against England last year.
In his first three Ranji Trophy games for Saurashtra, he notched two half century, including an uncommonly aggressive 91 off 83 balls against the eventual champions Mumbai in his opening game of the competition. After that, Pujara enrolled in the County Championships for Sussex and went into overdrive. In five games, he scored four hundreds, including two double hundreds, garnering media attention.
“The most important thing was playing so many first-class games. I was preparing for this when I was playing back home before I joined Sussex,” said Cheteshwar Pujara in an interview on BCCI.tv.
“In the three games I played for Saurashtra in the Ranji trophy I found my rhythm, knew that I was batting well. It was about getting a big score and so when I had that in my first game, I knew that everything is back to normal now. (I was) finding my footwork, the back lift was coming along well,” he added.
“After that I just wanted to enjoy my game and contribute to the team’s success. The most important thing is having a good time on the field. I love this game, and enjoy playing cricket, so whenever I am on the field I want to try and make the most of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, star players of the Indian team Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna have been added to the rival Leicestershire County Cricket Club squad.
Team India will take against Leicestershire in a four-day warm-up match commencing on Thursday before the fifth Test match against England is slated to begin on July 1. The match is a part of the five-match Test series from last year that had to be postponed following the fourth Test because to an outbreak of Covid-19 in the Indian camp.
