<img title="India's Cheteshwar Pujara plays a shot during his unbeaten 101 against New Zealand at the Holkar Stadium in Indore yesterday. Pic/PTI" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2016/oct/12Cheteshwar-Pujara-1.jpg" alt="India's Cheteshwar Pujara plays a shot during his unbeaten 101 against New Zealand at the Holkar Stadium in Indore yesterday. Pic/PTI" /> India's Cheteshwar Pujara plays a shot during his unbeaten 101 against New Zealand at the Holkar Stadium in Indore yesterday. Pic/PTI
One positive from India's series win against New Zealand is definitely Cheteshwar Pujara's batting. He topped the batting averages in this series, among both teams, scoring 373 runs from six innings with an average of 74.60 and a strike rate of 50.20. The Saurashtra batsman also scored an unbeaten hundred and three fifties in the series.
There has been lot of talk about Pujara's strike rate off late so this has been a huge leap from his 27.43 strike rate during India's tour of West Indies, where he scored 16 from 67 balls in the first Test and 46 from 159 in the second before he was dropped for the third Test.
<img title="Kiran More" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2016/oct/12Kiran-More-1.jpg" alt="Kiran More" /> Kiran More
"There is a lot of unnecessary criticism about his batting," said former chairman of selectors Kiran More. The Baroda glovesman, who first saw Pujara as a 14-year-old when Saurashtra played Baroda in Vadodara, added: "Facing the new ball when it is moving around is not easy (which Pujara has more often than not done, coming in at No. 3). It is much different from facing a 50-over old ball upfront. Why just Pujara? Any batsman would be a little cautious in their approach at that stage. He is too good a player to be facing such flak because of that."
"Even Sachin Tendulkar's batting approach changed over the years. When he first came in, he used to bat very aggressively. But he mellowed down a lot and still played some excellent knocks for India. I have seen a lot of Pujara even as an age-group cricketer and all I can say is that he has always played according to the merit of the situation," added the former India stumper.
Pujara's former Ranji Trophy teammate and now coach of Saurashtra, Sitanshu Kotak too has seen a lot of Pujara over the years and has also seen the India No. 3 score at a fair pace in domestic cricket.
"Even in our Ranji Trophy days I had seen Pujara score at a much faster pace when the team needed him to do so. Today, the situation demanded that he scores quickly, and he did that. In the first innings in Kolkata he had to slow down a bit as India were 46 for three at that stage. Can you criticise him for that?" Kotak asked yesterday.
Pujara's coach and father Arvind Pujara thinks that the 166 and unbeaten 256 that he scored in the Duleep Trophy must have given him a lot of confidence going into this series. "When you have runs under your belt, you ought to feel confident. I haven't seen much difference in his approach, but yes, I would say that he looked more confident in this series," added Pujara senior.

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How centurion Cheteshwar Pujara proved everyone wrong

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