Former Australia fast bowler Glenn McGrath said that Australian pacers have found a weakness in the armor of India's Cheteshwar Pujara and have stuck to the plan well to neutralize his threat in the ongoing four-match Test series.
In the ongoing 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series, Cheteshwar Pujara has found it difficult to score against the pacers, especially when they have maintained outside the off stump line to him.
On the morning of the third day of fourth Test-match at Gabba, Brisbane Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed by Josh Hazelwood, who bowled outside the off-stump line and the ball just straightened from there to take the outside edge of Pujara’s bat and nestled into Tim Paine’s gloves.
Former Australian pacer Glenn McGrath seems to have identified the weakness in Cheteshwar Pujara’s style of Test match batting and said that Pujara is getting out in a similar ways.
“Pujara is getting out in similar ways but they are all very good deliveries. They will probably get a lot of right-handers out. They are all around the off-stump," McGrath told Sony networks.
Glenn McGrath further said that bowling outside the off-stump channel to Cheteshwar Pujara’s will not make him go for runs and he won’t hurt you.
"He is (allowing bowlers to bowl there consistently). He is not going to hurt you. If you bowl there, he is not going to score runs. So you can just sit there all day and he will just bat all day and he won't hurt you. And one just does a bit more and he will be out. The bowlers have to be consistent and have to be patient and get that ball in that right area," he said.
McGrath further said that Australia team has executed the plans well and they have got the result they wanted.
"I think the Australian team has identified that. They said at the start of the series, that they had plans for Pujara and that back hip comes around, you do square up and probably make those balls look better than they are and I think they have identified something and they have been able to execute the plans and they have got the result they wanted." said McGrath.
Out of 7 innings Cheteshwar Pujara, played in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy, the former has managed to score 215 runs at the strike rate of 30, however Pat Cummins has had edge over Pujara dismissing him four times while Hazlewood has got him twice with similar lines and lengths.
During India's last tour to Australia, Cheteshwar Pujara was the difference between the two sides and took India to a 2-1 win against the hosts. He batted more than 1000 deliveries and scored 521 runs, including 3 hundreds.
(Sony network inputs)
