‘I feel it’s a blessing in disguise’: Cheteshwar Pujara about playing only in Tests

For the next couple of months, Team India will abandon the whites and wear colours – blue for internationals and many others for IPL in April and May. And, one of its finest batsman will vanish from the spotlight. After playing his part in a thoroughly dramatic three Test series in South Africa, Cheteshwar Pujara will be out of the spotlight during the limited-overs series and cricket’s biggest annual jamboree – the IPL.

Despite being a good batsman, Pujara is often perceived as a batsman who isn’t quick enough. There are phases in Tests where one sees the rapid flow of runs from Pujara’s willow. But his career strike-rates – 47.4 in Tests, 39.23 in five ODIs, and 105.1 in 58 T20s – makes one see him, especially in this era, as a batsman for Tests. And, India calls him only when it plays the longest format.

But the Saurashtra man doesn’t mind this.

“I feel sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise,” he said in an interview to Hindustan Times.

“When you are playing just one format, you have to wait and keep preparing for Tests. If you are not playing different formats, you are not in touch with international cricket.”

“So, when you play Tests, you need to make sure you play domestic cricket. It becomes really hard because sometimes when you are at home, you don’t get quality practice and preparation. You still have to motivate yourself and find ways to prepare,” he said.

Wrong perception

However, Pujara isn’t buying the criticism that he is slow in making runs and hence overlooked for limited overs format.

“It’s just the perception, or one odd time. One can’t highlight that one particular innings when I took 50-odd balls. Otherwise, if you look at my career, I have taken hardly 20 or 30 balls to get off the mark. One odd occasion can’t define a person.”

“There is nothing much I can do about it,” he says about being overlooked for Tests and the Indian Premier League. “But at the same time I’m very hopeful of playing different formats. Whatever I can do as a batsman and whatever things I need to improve on to play different formats, I’m doing.”

Contribution to team cause matters most

With T20 fast-becoming the game’s most popular format, Pujara concedes that the youngsters coming into professional cricket today love to play the strokes and are keen on playing the IPL and the shorter formats of the game. But when it comes to Test cricket, he says, one has to have a clear game plan. “You have to be correct technically. Many of them will eventually learn that these are the things they need to adjust to. One also has to stick to his strengths.”

The lack of enough hundreds away – he has only four – doesn’t bother Pujara, for he knows he has the ability and the passion to score runs in conditions that challenge.

“To score runs in difficult conditions, as a batsman that’s the most challenging task,” he says, “If the wicket is flat, any batsman can score. If you are scoring on a challenging pitch, that’s the most important thing from a team’s perspective.”

The runs of Pujara –100 from six innings – in the series against South Africa might not be remarkable, but without his grinding half-century (50 off 179 balls) in almost unplayable conditions in the Johannesbug Test, India wouldn’t have been able to script a superb win.

And the 30-year-old insists that the team management is happy for the contributions he has been making. “I’m not talking about the fans, but when it comes to the Indian team people do appreciate when you stick to a plan. Even teammates and the management appreciate I am contributing to the success. Sometimes even if you don’t score runs you have a role to play, and I am playing that. If it helps the team wins Tests then sometimes I am ready to sacrifice my scores,” he added.

Read the full interview here.