xtratime Logo

Xtra Time Web Desk: Team India opener Rohit Sharma on Friday defended his teammate Cheteshwar Pujara who has been under fire of late. Pujara responded his critics with a well timed 91* to lead India’s fight back to save the third test against England at Headingley.

Rohit expressed his displeasure regarding the talk surrounding Cheteshwar Pujara. He defended his teammate and stated that the team has not talked about his poor form at any stage.

 “You are talking about a guy who has played 80-odd Test matches. I don’t think he needs to be shown his videos of the past to go and do all of that. But once you are playing a Test match, you don’t want to get too much into detail about what you are going to do as a batter,” Rohit Sharma said in the virtual press conference after Day 3.

Rohit further added, “He definitely came with an intent to score runs. This innings of hours was never about survival. We had an intent to score runs and Pujara showed that. The way he got off to a mark and carried on from there, anything loose and he was ready to pounce on shows he had an intent in his batting. Of course, runs haven’t come of late but that doesn’t mean the quality of Pujara is gone missing. It was not an easy situation to go and bat today but he showed that today,” Rohit Sharma said.

India at stumps on Day 3 are 215/2, still trailing by 139 runs. Talking about the match situation, Rohit said, “The team’s job is not done yet. We have got a crucial couple of days coming and hopefully, Pujara keeps his head down and keeps batting the way he does. We batted poorly in the first innings. They bowled pretty good balls but it was definitely not a 78 pitch. Now the first task is to get the 139 runs and then we can think about a lead. We have to think about our game plan to get those runs and then plan accordingly about a lead.”