Australia series will be challenging says Cheteshwar Pujara

Team India’s success in the recently concluded home series against England was even more special because various heroes emerged at different points in the 5-match series to give the team an edge. One such hero who was more consistent over most others was No.3 Cheteshwar Pujara. Having struggled for a bit in the past with his batting the Saurashtra lad reinvented his approach and the results were for all to see.

At the moment he is playing the DY. Patil Twenty20 Cup for Indian in Navi Mumbai and has played a few splendid knocks. With that, he has once again shown that he is determined to erase off the Test specialist tag and establish himself as a more complete batsman. “I would look to continue the same form. Probably try and do even better than whatever I did against New Zealand and England. I have learnt from the mistakes which I did during these series and continue the good things which I have done in the previous two series,” Pujara told reporters.

The Aussies are scheduled to tour India in February-March for a 4-Test series and it will be the end to the Indian team’s long Test season. “Australia will be obviously challenging but we are playing as a team (and) have done well against New Zealand and England, particularly England was a tough team to beat, and we were playing a five Test match series, which is always tough. So the way we played in the last year, we should continue doing the same thing.

“To start with a one-off Test match against Bangladesh and then the following series against Australia,” Pujara added.

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Being in form and out of it is all about mindset according to the 28-year-old; he feels that even at the time he was not getting the runs there was nothing wrong with his technique. “It depends a lot (on the mindset). And I don’t think there was anything wrong with my technique or strike rate when I didn’t perform to the potential,” he said.

“Probably people have high expectations because I am known to score double hundreds. So when I score a 50 or 80 runs, no one notices it, sometimes even the 80 runs is helpful for the team’s success. But people always expect me to sore big runs, hundreds or double hundreds,”

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“So there was a time when I didn’t perform to what I was expected to but that phase is over now. I am back in form, I did well against New Zealand and England, so both the Test series went well. Even the shorter format of this game, I did well in a few T20 games here and whatever games I have played this year, I have performed well. I am happy with the way things are going,” Pujara added.