Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has said that Cheteshwar Pujara's rich experience playing in the English County Championship could offer valuable insights to his Indian teammates ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia.
Pujara played six games for Sussex in County Championship Division 2, registering scores of 115, 35, 18, 13, 151, 136, 77 and 0 from eight innings.
During his stint, Pujara also led Sussex and Australia’s star batter Steve Smith played under his captaincy for the same county side.
The much-awaited WTC final is slated to be held at the Oval in London from June 7 to 11.
"The fact that he has been around will mean that he will have also seen how the pitch has been behaving at The Oval.
"He might not have played at The Oval, he might be in Sussex not too far away from London but he will have kept an eye on what is happening and his inputs will be invaluable as far as the batting unit is concerned or even as far as the captaincy is concerned," Gavaskar told Star Sports.
"He will have the captains here as far as the Oval pitch is concerned and don't forget he has also been captaining the team, so he definitely will have worked out quite a few strategies seeing that Steve Smith, the Australian, is his teammate at the moment."
Questions have been raised over India’s preparation for the WTC final as most of the players featured in the just-concluded IPL season. Notably, India have 13 players in their WTC final squad who took part in IPL 2023 whereas Australia have only four.
Speaking on the same line, Gavaskar said it will be a challenge for the Indian batters to adjust their bat speed and he advised them to play as late as possible.
"I think they are going to look at their bat speed. Coming from T20 where the bat speed is very fast to Test cricket where the bat speeds got to be a lot more controlled, that is something they'll need to do," Gavaskar stated.
"They'll need to play in England as late as possible to allow for the swing to do its bit, not to reach out for the ball which often a lot of people make the mistake of having played on good pitches.
"Wherever you play on good pitches, you tend to play through the line, not necessarily half volleys, but in England those deliveries can move just that little bit. So, I think those are the things that as a batter you need to watch out for."
Gavaskar suggested the bowlers to bowl fuller length deliveries to allow the Dukes ball to swing.
"As a bowling unit also you'll need to bowl a much fuller length for your new ball, for the bowlers to be able to get the movement in the air as well as after pitching."
He pointed out the challenges India would face playing in English conditions.
"I think the English conditions are challenging because firstly we are used to play with the sun on our backs. When you are playing in England, often you are playing in conditions where there is no sun, it's a little overcast, the weather is a little bit cooler, so you sometimes wear a jumper.
"That's something that you know, the Indian players, West Indian players and Sri Lankan players are not really used to so that can be just a little bit of a dampener, little sort of light but you just feel a little bit encumbered by that.
"So, that is one thing and because in these conditions the ball tends to swing in the air not just after pitching which doesn't happen in India and therefore the swing in the air is what sometimes can take you some time to get used to
"...and which is a reason people generally when you are going overseas suggest that you should maybe play two or three warm-up matches, which will give you a better idea of what to get when you are playing in a test match," Gavaskar concluded.
(With PTI Inputs)
