How Pujara Counting On The Recent County Experience Would Hope To Come Good
To many a doting cricket fan, especially the one obsessed with Indian cricket, the biggest advantage for Cheteshwar Pujara heading into the World Test Championship final against Australia would be the fact that he has faced the same opponent a bit earlier in 2023.
Not too long ago this year, though before the start of the famed Indian Premier League’s 2023 edition, the Saurashtra man was part of the Test lineup that played Australia in the home series.
So, without much doubt, there’s that familiarity of having just touched and embraced an opponent, although earlier, with whom he is to rub shoulders again.
But truth be told, the biggest advantage- as some fans would note- for Cheteshwar Pujara entering the World Test Championship final against Australia is that he’s facing the Pat Cummins-led side in English conditions, regardless of them serving neutral ground for either side.
India's resolute batter at number three will be, hopefully unflinchingly, motivated by the fact that he’s just had a fantastic and productive County season in England, where he performed versus both spin as well as pace.
Though, factually speaking, the County experience is not really a brand new development for a batter usually associated with mental toughness and clear thinking at the game’s highest level.
Last season in 2022, a year where much of the world’s attention was on the biggest number crunching, viewership generating and stadia filling event in the form of the T20 World Cup, Cheteshwar Pujara was quietly accumulating the runs far away from the familiarity of batting in Indian conditions.
As a matter of fact, so utterly successful was Pujara’s time with Sussex, the stint perhaps far more productive then he'd have imagined originally that it produced nearly 1100 runs including eight first-class tons.
Pujara batted and batted and with much fluency, concluding a happy season with 1,094 runs, to be precise.
But unarguably speaking, the finest achievement of that feat above anything was that the right hander struck five centuries.
He was, by a long way, the man of Sussex’s important moment. Not that his numbers a year down the line changed any drastically.
The Indian team, as also Pujara himself, would be counting big against the Aussies at the back of what were, most recently, meaningful and consistent batting performances.
This year, i.e., the 2023 season, Cheteshwar Pujara’s aggregate score in 8 innings having played for Sussex again stood at 545 runs. These, rather remarkably, came at an average of 68.12.
But the shining light of these consistent performances was the fact that the batter considered pure quality at Cricket's highest level struck three centuries.
And yet, much of it said, what’s remarkable is that what Pujara is managing thousands of miles away from the slow and turning wickets of India is much more than what he’s usually been up to as far as the last two cricketing summers stand.
The big question now, and without much doubt, would be to take all that useful English experience whilst facing a side that’s, for centuries, been England’s number one rival.
Moreover, Pujara would also look for that big opportunity to produce runs in the final of such an important event this time around having truly failed almost twenty four months back.
Random claim? It’s anything but!
In the WTC final against New Zealand, circa end June 2021, which though was a game rain affected, Pujara’s returns with the bat didn’t do any justice to his infinite talent as a proper Test marksman.
After the massive disappointment of scoring just 8 runs off fifty four deliveries, the number three man scored just 15 off eighty deliveries.
When you stay at the wicket for no fewer than 134 deliveries and succeed at scoring just above 20 odd runs, you can be really left gutted on account of your own failure.
Which is precisely what Pujara would want to nullify on this brand new occasion.
He'd do well to remember that it’s a new chance again and rains not interfering, hopefully a bright new day for India and his batting to put forth some Midas touch.
The only thing, however, and cricket writers can wield words- not the bat in hand- of course, Pujara must guard against eating up too many deliveries to put that unwanted pressure on himself.
 "Dev Tyagi")