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AUS vs IND | Pujara rues lost advantage, but banking on lower order to last long


When Cheteshwar Pujara walked out to bat at the Adelaide Oval today, it was not a new experience for the right-hander who has bailed his team out of trouble on many occasions. Neither was it a situation he would not have been expecting during this long Test series, although he would be hoping he does not have to do it more often.

Pujara had to come out almost as an opener and had to combat Mitchell Starc who was looking to make amends for his lack of wicket-taking in the last series between the sides in 2018-19. The effect of Starc’s brilliance with the new pink ball was evident on Pujara who kept on feeling for the ball as he was not able to decipher whether the deliveries would go away from him come in.

The last innings Pujara had played against Australia was a marathon one at the Sydney Cricket Ground in a series where he almost single-handedly tired all the Australian bowlers out with immense grit, perseverance, and disciplined batting. After a brief period of nervousness at the crease, Pujara was back to where he let off in Sydney two years back and his signature shots - leave outside the off stump and dead bat to full balls on stumps - started coming in perfectly to calm the nerves in the dressing room.

But, unlike the last time, the Aussies had a plan in their mind and they positioned a leg gully and lured him to glance balls off his hips towards fine leg. Pujara was almost trapped when he hit one shot in that direction - the ball just went past a diving Nathan Lyon - but was quick to regain focus and never repeated the shot. He literally nullified the game plan set by the hosts.

Needless to say, he was patient and waited for the bowlers to err in length and bowl too full, completely in his arc for his bat to come down straight, but with soft hands, eliminating any threat of leading or outside edge.

He started to open up when Tim Paine introduced Nathan Lyon. Ultimately, after a long game of cat and mouse where Pujara was dancing down the track sometimes and going fully back into the crease occasionally, he decided to be as decisive as he could against Lyon. The Indian no. 3 batsman was done in by a delivery that bounced sharply from a length Pujara expected it wouldn't.


Pujara’s wicket was a costly loss for India but the fall of Kohli, followed by twin wickets of Rahane and Vihari, ultimately squandered the advantage that his hard work at the crease would have provided. The Saurashtra batsman was not to miss on admitting that the tourists let the hosts off the hook from a situation that may have led to them dictating terms in the game.

Although Pujara rued the late collapse, he has not given up hopes of a good score in the first innings and has put his faith behind Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, and the bowlers to put together a solid performance on the morning of day 2.

"We are just six down and Ash [Ashwin] can bat, Wriddhi [Saha] can bat, and even our lower order will try and contribute as many runs as possible. So we still have a very good chance of getting close to 275-300. If the lower-order bats well, you never know - we can get 350 also. Yes, there was a stage where we were in a dominating position but after losing Virat and Ajinkya they have a little bit of advantage. But I still feel we are evenly placed in this Test match,” Pujara said in the virtual press conference organized after the end of first day’s play.

Pujara was involved in two critical partnerships on the first day but, at the end of the day, he said that as a batting unit, the Indian team had focussed on stitching big partnerships in order to hand themselves an advantage early on in the first day of the series.

"The most important thing we discussed was building a partnership. When you have a big partnership - if it's more than 50 runs or if it's close to 100 runs - it always sets a proper platform for other batsmen to put our team in a commanding position. When I had a partnership with Virat, when Ajinkya came in - both of them were cruising and there was a time where we were 190 for 3 (188 for 3). I felt that was a position that we wanted to be in,” Pujara reflected.

The man who scored three hundreds during India's last Test series in Australia reemphasized the value of discipline while batting and said that all batsmen, including himself, had modelled their batting in such a way as to play according to the merits of the balls. He added that the Australian bowlers bowled tight line and lengths throughout the day to deny them easy runs. But Pujara reiterated that if the lower order can sustain the innings for a bit of extra time on the morning of day 2, India can reclaim the position of ascendency in this Test.

"But this is what Test cricket is all about. When you lose a couple of wickets, the opposition has a little bit of advantage. But again when we score some runs tomorrow morning, we'll be in a commanding position. So you just have to respect this format and we are just trying to do that when we were in the middle. Play according to the merit of the ball and whatever runs we could get out of both sessions. Our game plan was very simple - if we get any loose ball then we'll try and play our shots. But if they are bowling in good areas, you just have to respect that." 

Pujara batted for 160 balls for his vigilant 43 and said that being patient and waiting for loose balls forms a critical aspect of batting on pitches where bowlers get assistance, especially when they come up against bowling lineups such as Australia’s. He emphasized the very old belief about Test cricket that preserving wickets in the early two sessions of a game when bowlers are raring to go often proves to be a determining factor.


"When it happens to be a wicket like today, where there's a lot of help for bowlers, then it's important to be patient. The bowler has the leverage, where he can also bowl by experimenting a bit. If you have a total of less than 200 then the team struggles a lot overseas. The team's target is often to reach 250-300 or beyond 300. For that, the starting two sessions are very important in Tests and it's necessary to bat with patience because the bowler is fresh, the wicket is fresh, and you can't play too many shots," Pujara added on the value of his approach to batting in Tests.

Pujara was the main man who carried the mettle of thwarting Australian bowlers in the last series and if the temperament and discipline he showed on the first day of the series are anything to go by, he’s in for yet another series of attritional brilliance.

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