IND vs NZ: Ajaz Patel knocks down Cheteshwar Pujara with a spitting cobra

Cheteshwar Pujara hasn’t had the best of times in international cricket of late. Due to his lack of form, he has been greeted with a lot of flak from the netizens. The 33-year-old has strained to perform even in India’s ongoing Test series against New Zealand. In the first Test at the Green Park in Kanpur, Pujara got scores of 26 and 22, failing to convert his starts both times.

In the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Pujara went down the barrel once again. He came to bat after Ajaz Patel got rid of Shubman Gill, who scored 44 runs off 71 balls with the help of seven fours and one six. The onus was on Pujara to build a decent partnership with the well-set Mayank Agarwal. However, he failed to do so. In fact, the right-hander couldn’t even open his account.

Patel rattled his woodwork to cut short his stay in the middle. Pujara came down the track to counter the tweaker’s guile, but was beaten all ends up. The ball dipped below his bat, spun viciously and took down the off-stump. Pujara faced five balls before walking back to the pavilion.

Here’s the video

pic.twitter.com/DHeFJpOjDv

— Simran (@CowCorner9) December 3, 2021

Steve Harmison lashes out at Cheteshwar Pujara

Earlier, former England fast bowler Steve Harmison came down hard on Pujara and the out-of-form Ajinkya Rahane for not performing to expectations. The veteran said that it’s high time that India look for a new face instead of depending on Pujara and Rahane to come good.

“I think they both [Rahane and Pujara] looked as if they were done, they both walked off the field in that first innings as I they knew it may be the last time, they walk off the field for India,” Harmison was quoted as saying on his YouTube channel.

“Pujara especially, 39 innings without a hundred is a long time for a player to bat in the top six and still warrant a place in that great Indian side. There’s a lot of players missing at the moment and you might just see another debutant or player who hasn’t played a lot of international cricket,” he added.