New Delhi, Feb 16, 2023, IANS
New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS): On the verge of becoming the 13th Indian cricketer to play a hundred Test matches, top-order batter Cheteshwar Pujara reflected on his career till now, saying his knock of 72 on debut was a very important knock in his cricketing career.
Pujara had made his Test debut co-incidentally in the second Border-Gavaskar Trophy match against Australia at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru in October 2010, making 72 in a successful chase of 207 and was promoted ahead of Rahul Dravid, now the head coach of the Indian team.
In that game, he was trapped lbw for four by Mitchell Johnson in the first innings. But in the second innings, Pujara left everyone delighted with his crisp shots against Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter George and Nathan Hauritz on his way to making 72 on a day five pitch, hitting seven fours, while taking 19 ones, ten twos, and playing 52 dot balls.
"Very difficult to name two particular innings. Some of them I can mention here, like the one when I made 72 on debut, I thought that was one of most important knocks in my cricketing career as I was very nervous. If I hadn't scored those runs, maybe I wouldn't have been playing international cricket. So, that innings was very special," he said in the pre-match press conference.
On the nostalgic route, Pujara added, "Moving on, 92 against Australia in 2017 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium was one of my favourite innings. Apart from that, my first overseas hundred in South Africa, I got 155 in the second innings. Then, 123 in Adelaide and last Test (in 2021) at the Gabba, where I made 56 and got hit on the body a few times."
Life is indeed coming full circle for Pujara, with his debut and 100th Test match coming against Australia. Against the opponents for Friday's Test at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Pujara averages 52.77, including five centuries and ten fifties.
"Australia has always been a tough opposition, against whom we had a really great series. England and New Zealand have also been challenging opponents. Our performance against them has been really good as when we are challenged, we know the potential of the team. Players are willing to fight back and take that challenge to fight out and become the number one team in the world."
"They have a good fighting spirit no matter what the situation of the game is. They will always challenge you as an opponent. Whenever I have walked into bat, I never get free runs against Australia. I always have to work really hard to get a way out and get those runs."
"They play as a unit and are always vocal even on the field, so little bit of banter and chat going on. Sometimes it motivates me as I won't try to talk back at them. But the best thing you can do as a cricketer is to make runs and get the bat to do the talking. They have been a challenging opposition and I had good success, but we always enjoy this challenge," he elaborated.
About the bowlers who challenged him in Test cricket, Pujara had quite a few names to mention quickly.
"Personally for me, playing against James Anderson in England. Then facing Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn were quite challenging to face during my first overseas trip. I had some issues and then spoke to Rahul bhai to work on my game. Pat Cummins has been one of the most challenging bowlers to play in Australian conditions."