Cheteshwar Pujara's father says 'This is his finest knock in Test cricket so far'

Cheteshwar Pujara played an excellent inning yesterday and partnered with Wriddhiman Saha to get India out of trouble. Arvind Pujara, Cheteshwar’s father after his fantastic innings said that his son is a lot like his mother. He said this because the number three batsman absorbed all the pressure and had a firm hold on one end and allowed the other batsmen to get in the game.

Pujara faced a total of 525 balls as batted superbly not giving any bowler a chance. “When it comes to absorbing pressure, Chintu is so much like his mother. When she was alive, she would take care of each and every problem in the house without even letting anybody get a whiff about it. I am not like that. I get flustered easily,” Pujara Sr said while talking to Mid-day.

The proud father was all praise for his son as he termed his knock one of his finest in Test cricket. He said that it was not an easy track to play on and you could not ride your luck on it.

“This is his finest knock in Test cricket so far. First, it was a chanceless inning. Secondly, it wasn’t an easy track and stroke-making was very difficult because of the pitch’s two-paced nature,” explained Arvind.

He said that the focus Cheteshwar showed was excellent and his concentration was of the highest quality. The father was proud of his son for this terrific inning, he said, “He accumulated runs showing remarkable focus, patience, and determination on that wicket — playing 525 balls is not easy.”

Rajkot-based Arvind watched his son bat on the television as Pujara smacked Australians for a double century. He hailed the 29-year-old for holding one end even when Australia were attacking him with bouncers and bowling a negative line. He also said that no other batsman was able to stand his ground other than Wriddhiman Saha which makes Pujara’s innings even more important.

Arvind said, “Thirdly, he got his runs despite Australia resorting to negative bowling tactics. Fourthly, he was standing firm even when India were losing wickets at regular intervals till Wriddhiman Saha stayed on and scored a century.”