Convinced that Cheteshwar did not struggle in the Caribbean, Arvind Pujara, father and coach of the India batsman, wants his son to convert his starts into big scores
Cheteshwar Pujara
Cheteshwar Pujara
On Teacher's Day, India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, tweeted: "Would like to dedicate this knock to my coach/father on #TeachersDay, thank u for teaching me this beautiful game."
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Pujara had just scored a brilliant 166 for India Blue against India Green in the Duleep Trophy at Greater Noida on that day. This was his first big innings since the 126 he scored against Assam in the Ranji Trophy semi-final at Vadodara in February. Pujara went on to score an unbeaten 256 in the final against India Red six days later.
These were important runs at an equally important time given that the India No 3 was going through a lean patch and he was even dropped from the national team on a couple of occasions.
Pujara's father Arvind Pujara, a former Ranji Trophy player from Saurashtra, has been the force behind his career ever since he arrived on the cricketing scene as a 14-year-old. Pujara Sr stressed his son was not batting badly when his supposed bad phase was talked about.
"It is not that he was batting badly or looked in any sort of trouble. He was getting starts but was not converting those into a big score. When you get run out after scoring 40 odd runs, you can't say that he was in bad form. I think he played one bad shot in the series against West Indies when he pulled a short ball and got out soon after a break. I talked to him after that and he agreed that he should have given himself some more time before playing that shot as he was coming from a break," said Arvind.
"I was impressed with the first 100 runs that he scored during his unbeaten 256 he notched in the final and I knew that his confidence is back. One shot, the back foot straight drive that he played was something you don't see very often and he played that shot with so much ease that I knew his confidence is back," said Arvind.
When asked if there is pressure of expectation given that he has forced his way into the Indian team on the weight of some big knocks in domestic cricket, Arvind said: "I can't talk about others' expectations but Cheteshwar he has been trained to bat long and score big. He has been doing that consistently in domestic cricket for a long time now. I also expect him to do that at the international stage. The drive, the hunger hasn't changed. He is somebody who can provide lot of solidity to the Indian middle order if he plays."
While Arvind declined to comment on selection issues, Team India coach Anil Kumble, in an interview with a cricket website said: "Pujara is a very important cog in our wheel and he is a very important player in the No 3 position. Yes the sword is always hanging on his head, which is not good. I certainly believe he is a very important player for us and he will play at No 3, and for us to be successful, he is important in the short term and long term as well."
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Cheteshwar's big challenge of this long home season begins in Kanpur on Thursday. He's not played a Test before at Green Park. Will that make him more determined? Probably, because he has scored Test hundreds on first appearance at the Wanderers in Johannesburg (2013-14), Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal (2012-13), Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad (2012-13) Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo (2014-15) and at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium (2012-13).
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