'Not at all' - Cheteshwar Pujara feels there is no chance of Adelaide disaster repeat in pink-ball Test in Ahmedabad

Team India had produced a disaster in the first pink-ball Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in December 2020 as they had succumbed to an embarrassing defeat by 8 wickets after registering their lowest ever Test total, 37 runs in their second batting innings. The Men in Blue will again feature in a pink-ball Test against England, starting from February 24 at Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad.

While many believe that the poor performance against Australia in the day-night Test might haunt the Indian team in the upcoming game against England, India’s batting mainstay Cheteshwar Pujara rubbished all such claims stating that the players are well aware of the home conditions. Pujara also believes that India was in a dominating position in the Test against Australia but had to face defeat due to one and half hours of poor cricket.

“Not at all. It was a different ball game altogether. We were playing in Australia and the ball was seaming around a lot. We had one bad session – one and a half hours of poor batting led us to a disaster. But I felt overall that if you look in the first innings in the Australia Test match we were still in a dominant position.

“Here we are playing in our own, familiar conditions. The ball is also different. We are very confident we will put up a good show. We will not try and look back at what has happened in the past. We like to be in the present and focus on our preparations,” Pujara said as quoted by Sky Sports.

With the pink ball, it is very difficult to predict things: Cheteshwar Pujara

The pink ball is expected to generate extra swing which can favour the England batsmen as they are used to batting in similar conditions. In the Indian squad, Pujara is also well-versed with the extra swing pitch conditions as he has featured in country cricket for teams like Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

While Pujara agreed that the hosts aren’t very comfortable with extra swing, he believes that the youngsters will be able to perform decently after some support and words of wisdom by the senior players and him.

“I would not say our guys are completely inexperienced but they haven’t played a lot of cricket in England. I will chat with them, our experienced players will have a word with the younger players.

“But we are not sure how much the ball is going to swing around. It might early on but there might not be a lot as the match progresses. With the pink ball, it is very difficult to predict things,” Cheteshwar Pujara concluded.