England vs India: Virat Kohli sells Cheteshwar Pujara down the river

Cheteshwar Pujara is in the middle of a rough patch in his cricketing career. He has been in England for the last few months in which he hasn’t tasted much success. He played for Yorkshire in the County Championship and flattered to deceive. The 30-year-old couldn’t perform in India’s practice match against Essex at County Ground in Chelmsford, much to his dismay.

To add insult to injury, he was left out of the eleven for India’s opening Test against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham. However, fortuned turned around for him when he replaced Shikhar Dhawan in the playing eleven for the second Test at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Stadium. He had to wait for a day to take the field as rain played spoilsport in the opening day of the match.

Pujara’s shambolic campaign continues

There’s no doubt surrounding his temperament to wear down quality bowling attacks. In a bid to make a comeback and make a statement, Pujara buckled to stave off the English attack, which was spewing venom. He played out 24 deliveries and albeit he scored only one run, he looked determined to pull India out of the precarious position after they slumped to 10/2 in the seventh over.

Just when he seemed settled, thunder stroke at the wrong time and Pujara’s English campaign went from bad to worse. In the third ball of the ninth over, Pujara patted the ball down and looked at Virat Kohli at the non-striker’s end. Kohli obliged and both set for a single. Meanwhile, debutant Ollie Pope scampered from the slip cordon to pick up the ball in a flash.

Kohli ran in quite a bit after which he reckoned the single wasn’t on. Hence, he refused Pujara and asked him to return. Nevertheless, Pujara was way too down the track and had absolutely no chance of making his way to his crease. Pope took the bails off without any fuss. After the dismissal, both looked at each other, clueless, dejected, shattered. Subsequently, India lost their third wicket.

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