Steve Waugh’s blaring statement on Indian legend Rahul Dravid – “Try to take his wicket in the first 15 minutes, if you can’t then only try to take the remaining wickets” – had remained effused with a praise of the highest order.
Not only did it convey the helplessness of the bowling unit to scalp his wicket once he had crossed the initial part of his innings, but also emphatically expressed Dravid’s penchant for batting long periods and the psychological impact it had on the opposition.
His exit from the cricketing arena in 2012 brought with it an irreplaceable void in the Indian batting order, an emptiness which seemed impossible to eradicate.
Comparisons in the field of sport are often not held in good stead but Cheteshwar Pujara’s entry at number three for India has replicated Dravid’s patience and temperament to a certain extent.
The phase of block-and-defend deliveries for hours on end had seemed to make an unceremonious farewell with the Bangalorean’s departure, but soon enough there emerged Pujara.
The Rajkot batsman’s innings against Australia in the third Test – batting unfazed for 525 deliveries (672 minutes), scoring 202 runs to take his team out of trouble showed we have a special player within our midst.
Poor Overseas Record
A total of 9,028 balls faced in 88 innings, which reduces it to a whopping 102.59 balls faced per innings. 4,324 runs in 53 games, with 14 hundreds and three double hundreds. Six scores in excess of 150. An average of 53.38 in Test cricket. A conversion rate of almost 50. Based on pure numbers alone, Pujara’s legacy remains untarnished - his aura resounding.
However, what has vastly seemed to worry pundits and former cricketers alike is the varying difference in his performances at home and abroad. The true mettle of a cricketer is tested when he is thrown in alien conditions, away from the familiar by-lanes of his home soil. And this is where Pujara hasn’t been able to convincingly stamp his authority.
The average at home, which reads 64.12 drops to 38.52 abroad. In Australia, the average reads 33.50 while he averages just over 22 in England. It drops to a lowly 15 in New Zealand and even in West Indies, a team which hardly possess a menacing bowling unit, he averages 31.
The hushed talks around Indian cricket revolve around Pujara’s impressive records in pitches, where the balls hardly bounce. In pitches with seam, pace and swing abound, Pujara has historically struggled.
In the countries toured, the Indian fares his best in South Africa, where he averages 44.42. His only ton away from the subcontinent has been scored in the Rainbow Nation – almost four years ago, when he scored 153 in Johannesburg, mastering the Dale Steyns and Jacques Kallis’ to perfection.
During the series, he batted at the crucial number three slot four times in that series, facing 600 balls for a total of 280 runs.
Improved Technique
As India prepares to depart for South Africa again in an attempt to further enhance their world domination, each player in the line-up will have an extended role to play. The most crucial of those will undoubtedly be the role played by Pujara.
On occasions, he might need to come out to bat in the first half hour in the first day itself. On others, he might have to steady the ship on a tricky fourth day and ensure he bats out as many overs as possible to prevent his team the blushes. He will have to provide the foundation, holding an end up, to ensure a stiff target on the board. He will be the fulcrum around whom the team’s batting will revolve.
Yes, he flies to the country with the burden of having an overseas record that hardly inspires. But he carries with him the momentum from an illustrious 2017, in which he averaged 71.20 from 10 games, with four centuries to his name. Yes, he has struggled in wickets that do not keep low and slow but his stint with Nottinghamshire earlier this year has helped him polish his lack.
His county stint, which fetched him 233 runs in five innings, including a knock of 112 in his first game against Gloucestershire, has vastly improved his flawed techniques in seaming conditions, which was seen in his fighting knock of 52 in 117 balls in Kolkata against Sri Lanka in the first Test match of the ongoing series.
With Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Gamage breathing venom down the Indian batters in overcast conditions, Pujara waged a lone battle then, tackling swing and bounce with a rigid technique and a monk-like trance. Equipped with a mental stamina and concentration levels that threaten to reach the zenith, Pujara is Indian cricket’s fiery saviour – composed, tranquil and reliable.
Incredible Attitude
But more than anything, it is his attitude to transcend the ordinary that makes the Rajkot player such a vital member. It hurt him when he was called unfit. It affected him when he was questioned for his inability to score the quick runs, despite his magnanimous efforts with the willow. It hurt his ego when he was dropped from the squad. And so he gustily improved - his fitness, his running between the wickets and his strike rate.
Now, he can easily notch up a strike rate of 58.3, as he did against England in Visakhapatnam or bat at 39.5, according to the match situation. He can remain as orthodox as one will ever find a player to be or he can quickly shift gears upon his captain’s order.
In his partnerships with Virat Kohli, he does not hinder the skipper in his quest for the quick singles even going in for the twos and threes just as easily as he would punch a cover drive off Rangana Herath. His slip catching has improved. His attitude has turned into ruthlessness, where the bowlers will hardly be spared the wrath.
They say, change and constant improvisations are the order of life and it is the upcoming tour to South Africa that will provide a litmus test to Pujara’s continued efforts at improvement.
When the balls constantly whiz past at 150 km/h, he will either echo the absence of Dravid or emerge from his cocoon, evolving into the player that he was always meant to be in overseas tours.
(Sarah Waris is a postgraduate in English Literature has taken on the tough task of limiting the mystic world of cricket to a few hundred words. She spends her hours gorging on food and blabbering nineteen to the dozen while awaiting the next Indian sporting triumph. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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