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Debasis Sen, Galle: Indian middle order batsman Cheteswar Pujara on Thursday attributed his recent success with the bat to his stint with county side Northamptonshire. According to Pujara, the stint in county cricket has taught him a lot and helped him develop his skills. The Sourashtra batsman played a brilliant knock of 153 runs to place India in the driver’s seat after Day 2 of the first test match here.
“Playing County cricket is always challenging. So you never get easy runs. Most of the times, you are playing on challenging wickets. So as a cricketer, it teaches you a lot.You grow as a cricketer, your technique improves and when you come and play international cricket again, you have some experience of playing first-class cricket and you are always in touch with the game. So playing some County games did help me,” said Pujara.
On being asked how does he get himself focussed when he sees his teammates playing in the IPL, Pujara said,
“When I have some time in between Test matches and if I am not part of the IPL, I prefer to go and play some County matches. It gives me exposure, playing in different conditions, facing different bowlers,” he added.
With the passage of time Pujara is shaping into a very dependable No. 3 batsman much in the mould of Rahul Dravid. The cricketer from Sourstra rated the hundred he made against Sri Lanka at Colombo in the previous tour in 2015, above today’s effort.
“As a batsman, you always want to perform well on challenging pitches. Especially when I got my 145, it was at SSC, that particular wicket was more challenging than this one. When you score a hundred on such wickets, it is more satisfying than this one. But when you are doing a job for the team, I always enjoy scoring hundreds.”
Pujara shared a brilliant partnership of 253 runs with Shikhar Dhawan for the second wicket. He did not hesitate to express his gratitude to Dhawan.
“The way my partnership was with Shikhar Dhawan, I think both of us batted really well, especially him. The way he started off yesterday, it was challenging for him, he was making a comeback and the way he batted, and it was a pleasure to watch from the other end.