‘It was one of the most important innings in my career’, Cheteshwar Pujara

Ahead of his 100th Test against Australia in Delhi, India’s No.3 Cheteshwar Pujara, the 13th Indian to achieve the landmark, faced some of the most challenging innings and bowlers in his 13-year career. Pujara preferred to identify some of the innings that came close to him without dwelling on just one pair, four of which coincidentally have come against Australia.

Pujara recalled –

“The one is when I made my debut and scored 72. I thought, that it was one of the most important innings in my career because I was very nervous. If I hadn’t scored those runs, maybe I might not have played international cricket after that. That innings was special.”

“Moving on from there, the 92 against Australia at the Chinnaswamy Stadium is one of my favourites. Apart from that, my first overseas 100 against South Africa, I think it was Jo’burg in the second innings, 123 at Adelaide, and the last Test match at the Gabba, where I got hit on the body a few times. These are my special innings.”

A little more focus on the common factor in most of those innings – Australia – Pujara touched that makes them challenging. He said – “Irrespective of the game situation, he has a good fighting spirit. He will always challenge you as an opponent.”

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Pujara further said –

“Whenever I walk in to bat against Australia, I never get easy runs. I always have to work my way out to get runs, I’ve to work hard to get my runs. And, they play as a unit, they’re always vocal so there’s a little bit of banter and chat going on. Sometimes, that motivates me a bit more.”

“I am not someone who will try to talk back to them, but the best thing I can do is to score runs and let the bat do the talking. They’ve been a challenging opposition and I’ve had a bit of success, but yes, we always enjoy this challenge.”