India’s premier batsman Cheteshwar Pujara might have received flak for his slow batting as he scored 3 of his slowest half-centuries in Test cricket on the recently concluded four-match Test series in Australia.
However, it was his strong defense and ability to absorb pressure that helped the young generation of Indian batsmen like Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, and others to take an aggressive route and counter-attack the Australian bowling on their way to a famous 2-1 Test series win, which included breaching the fortress at the Gabba, Brisbane.
Pujara, India no.3 in Tests, batted 928 balls and scored a 174-ball half-century, and then bettered it with a 196-ball fifty in Brisbane. However, the second half-century was instrumental in India winning the Brisbane Test, chasing down the 328-run target with Rishabh Pant making 89* and Gill making 91.
The Saurashtra batsman was battered with the short ball and was hit on the helmet multiple times while taking blows to the elbow, forearm, and a particularly painful hit on the fingers. But he soldiered on, assuring his batting partners that he won’t be removed from the crease unless a very good ball is bowled.
After averaging 60.5 balls per innings in the first two Tests, he averaged 171.5 balls per innings in the next two, his shortest stay at the crease in those being 94 balls. He had chewed up 205 balls in the second innings of the Sydney Test as well, where Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin batted out 258 deliveries to ward off the danger and earn a draw to keep the team alive in the series.
In the second innings of the Gabba Test, Pujara faced as many as 211 deliveries to blunt the Australian attack. Pujara finished the recently concluded Test series with 271 runs from eight innings at an average of 33.87 and strike rate of 29.20. But he had done his job, as he did in the 2018-19 series, where he made over 500 runs with three centuries.
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But his half-centuries this time were as valuable as those centuries, as it gave a second-string Indian side their most famous Test series win anywhere in the world.
Pujara himself admitted that he was taking some unforgettable memories with him as he returned home, but also cheekily mentioned that he was carrying some bruises as well.
