India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara who was criticized heavily for a string of low scores in his recent Test outings, silenced all the critics by a fantastic 91 in the second innings of Leeds Test followed by a superb 61 in the second innings of The Oval Test match.
Pujara’s knock came at the right time as he along with opener Rohit Sharma stitched together a 154-run stand for the second wicket and bailed the tourists out of any state of worry.
During the partnership with Sharma, Pujara twisted his ankle while taking a single and was down in pain but with quick medical attention from the Indian physio saw the right-hand batsman was up and running with his heavily taped ankle.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan who observed the whole innings during day 3 of the ongoing fourth Test match, pointed out some similar traits Pujara shares with Vaughan and Pakistan's great Inzamam-ul-Haq.
“From knowing Pujara a bit from his time at Yorkshire, he's a bit like me and I wouldn't say that fielding is high up on his list of priorities. It'll be an injury in that ankle that if there's any prospect of him taking a bit of time off the field, he will take it. There's a few around who used to be like that, Inzamam is one who comes to mind,” the Englishman said on the BBC Test Match Special.
Even though England batters had secured a 99-run lead in the first innings, their bowling attack had to toil hard for wickets on the third day owing to this amazing Rohit-Pujara partnership which saw the visitors taking a 171-run lead.
“It just feels that this England attack is very similar. It's a concern when the ball's not moving around that much as a batter you can't get used to it. Everything's almost the same pace. There isn't a go-to bowler to rough Pujara up,” Vaughan said.
The right-hand batsman then talked about how baffled he was to see English bowlers not noticing the need to bowl short balls even though someone like Ollie Robinson has dismissed the Mumbai-based cricketer twice in the series with bouncers.
“I'm just staggered. There's so much experience in this England team, how they haven't noticed the need to bowl shorter deliveries before now to both batsmen. I don't think I've seen Ollie Robinson bowl a single bouncer in this match yet, he's had Rohit out twice in this series with the short ball,” the former England cricketer concluded.
Thus, with the scoreboard reading 270/3 at the end of day 3 with Virat Kohli (22) and Ravindra Jadeja (9) at the crease, it will be exciting to see what target this Indian team sets for hosts in the second innings.
(With BBC Test Match Special Inputs)
