'Team management understands my style of play' - Cheteshwar Pujara opens up on the fuss created around his low strike-rate

Cheteshwar Pujara is a traditional Test specialist and has emerged as one of the most important parts of Team India in the last five years. He has been mulling runs with the bat in overseas as well as home conditions. But one thing due to which he has to face the criticism is his strike rate while batting.

At the moment, the player wants to play explosive cricket due to the popularity of T20 format. But, Cheteshwar Pujara has never changed his outlook towards cricket. He is still the same cricketer, who plays the game in the way similar to none other than former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid. Pujara made his debut back in 2010 and went onto become a regular face of Team India in the longer format.

So far, the right-hander has scored 5840 runs in 77 games with the help of 18 tons, three double and 25 half-centuries. His stats obviously shows how talented he is in a longer format. But, when we have a look at his overall career strike rate in Test cricket is quite low– 46.18.

Recently, he returned from a tour of New Zealand where again his strike rate became the talk of the town. In two games, he scored 100 runs at a strike rate of 28.49 which is way below than his overall career strike-rate. He was brought under the scanner by the cricketing fraternity and fans for the same. Pujara also played in the same fashion for Saurashtra in Ranji Trophy 2019-20 final where he mustered 66 runs off 237 balls with the bat that opened the debate around his strike-rate yet again.

There is no pressure from the captain, says Cheteshwar Pujara

Now, in an interview, he said that there is nothing much to create a fuss around his strike rate. He feels that in media the things are described quite differently but that has never been the case. The team management has always backed his game and one thing is very clear that there is no pressure on him from anyone in the team. The management is well aware of his style of play and its importance for the team.

“I don’t think there is too much talk (on the inside). In media, it is described differently but the team management has been backing me on this completely. There is no pressure from the captain, coach or anyone else. I just want to clarify that when it comes to strike rate, people start pointing towards team management’s take on it but there is no pressure on me at all. The team management understands my style of play and its importance,” Cheteshwar Pujara said as quoted by India Today.