Pujara needs to work harder to this time around in Aus: Glenn McGrath

Former Aussie fast bowler and one of the greatest to have ever graced the game, Glenn McGrath believes that Indian Test maestro Cheteshwar Pujara would have to work a lot harder this time to make sure that he emulates his brilliant performance from India’s historic 2018-19 series win against the Aussies.

The reason for the fast bowler’s assessment is the fact that Pujara hasn’t spent much time in the middle and therefore will look rusty.

“The fact that he hasn’t spent time in the middle hasn’t had a lot of long batting time, is going to have a big impact. He will probably have to work harder this series than the last one as he hasn’t played any cricket,” McGrath was quoted as saying about the 32-year-old Indian.

However, the Aussie great who has 563 Test scalps to his name did not count Pujara out and rated his methods as top-class saying that he can well make up for the time off the field.

“The thing he did so well last time was that he occupied the crease. He spent time in the middle just batting,” said the 50-year-old.

Saying that he doesn’t get bogged down by playing dots, McGrath counted Pujara as one of the rarities in modern-day cricket. “He is a kind of batsman who doesn’t feel pressure when not scoring runs. That’s unique in the modern era where there are batsmen who would want to score runs after one maiden over,” he said.  

“Pujara doesn’t have that mindset. That helped him last time, allowed him to get a lot of time and just compile runs,” added the Dubbo born.

Last time around, Pujara in 7 innings, had aggregated 521 runs including 3 match-winning hundreds across three venues with an average of 74.43.

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