Internet Desk: Ace Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara will be playing his 50th test match at Colombo, starting on Thursday. Ahead of the second test Pujara shared that it will be a proud moment for him to represent the country and he is looking forward to play the match and want to score some runs for his team.
“Just to start off with it has been a wonderful journey so far. I mean, playing the 50th Test match for the country it will be a proud moment for me. When I started playing cricket, I thought that Test cricket is always something that I wanted to play. When I have an opportunity to represent the country for the 50th Test match, it will be a proud moment. The way things have shaped up so far, the career has been really good. There have been ups and downs but looking at the recent form, I will be looking forward to play in the 50th Test match and score some runs for the team,” said Pujara at the press conference today.
Pujara had to stay away from cricket for a long period of time earlier in his career. He was out from the field due to a knee injury for six months and later in 2011 he again got injured. On being asked how difficult was it for him to cope up with the injured phase, Pujara replied,”That was one of the most challenging times of my career where I was out for six months; with a first knee injury and again in 2011 I got injured. It took six months again. So overall I haven’t been able to play cricket for a year which was really tough for me. The reason was once you get injured you need to start scoring runs again, you need to get that rhythm again as your concentration goes down. Injury was the toughest part of my career but now I have come out of it and am working really hard on my fitness so that I don’t catch injuries anymore. Again, you can’t guarantee anything but as long as you work hard on your fitness, the chances of getting injured are less.”
Pujara played many crucial knocks for the Indian team which helped the side to win a lot of matches. Pujara made his Test debut in the year 2010 and he always cherish some special moments of that time. ”2010 I think was the most crucial year for me when I made my debut and the first Test match I still remember because I wanted to play with some legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, many of them were part of the Indian team and to share the dressing room with them… I still remember those moments. Those are the times and those are the moments that have stood apart. Apart from that when we talk about the Test series, the recent Test series against Australia was the toughest. That victory was one of the best Test series I have been part of,” said Pujara.
Cheteshwar is happy, that his father, who has been his worst critic, is no longer as strict as he used to be. Cheteshwar, in his 49 Tests so far, has scored over 3,900 runs, along with an average of 52, including 12 centuries.
“Yes he has been. I would like to thank him that I have reached this stage. He is the one who has been coaching me since I was eight years old. At times, he has been very critical about my batting but now we have come to an understanding where we always speak and we come to a conclusion. And he is not very strict anymore,” concluded Pujara.