'He needs a break' - Twitter frustrated with Cheteshwar Pujara getting out early again
Pujara has scored only 71 runs in five innings of this series.
The third Test between England and India got underway after a long break on Wednesday (August 25). The visitors are leading the five-match series 1-0 after registering a stunning win at Lord’s. Their skipper Virat Kohli finally managed to win a toss in England and he had no hesitation in batting first on a sunny morning in Leeds.
However, team India is reeling within the first half hour of the Test having lost both KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara. While Rahul endured his first duck (or failure) of the series, it wasn’t the same for India’s number three. Pujara’s barren run with the bat just extended for one more innings.
James Anderson’s masterclass with the new ball just induced the batsman to make an error. The veteran pacer has only delivered in-swingers to Cheteshwar Pujara before and he started the new over going wide of the crease pitching the ball closer to the off-stump but with an outswinger.
The 33-year-old batsman pushed at an away going delivery without much confidence and ended up edging the red cherry to the wicketkeeper Jos Butter. Pujara could score only a solitary run after facing nine deliveries to leave India struggling at 4/2 in the fifth over.
A poor series for Cheteshwar Pujara
Cheteshwar Pujara, clearly, isn’t having a good time in England. So far, in his series, he has scored 71 runs in five innings at an average of 17.75. Moreover, 45 of those came in the second innings at Lord’s where he stitched a crucial stand of 100 runs with Ajinkya Rahane. Pujara faced more than 200 balls for his 45 but looked assured in his defence and many thought he had gained his form with that knock.
Interestingly, these are the best batting conditions India have got to bat and they have got off to their worst start in five innings of this series. They did really well in cloudy, seaming and swinging conditions before and it remains to be seen how they recover from this situation. Meanwhile, the fans were not impressed for the umpteenth time in recent past for getting out early.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
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