Cheteshwar has been trained to bat long and score big: Arvind Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujara’s father Arvind Pujara feels that his son isn’t struggling at all and stressed on the fact that the top order batsman was not batting badly when his supposed bad phase was talked about.

“It is not that he was batting badly or looked in any sort of trouble. He was getting starts but was not converting those into a big score. When you get run out after scoring 40 odd runs, you can’t say that he was in bad form.”

I think he played one bad shot in the series against West Indies when he pulled a short ball and got out soon after a break. I talked to him after that and he agreed that he should have given himself some more time before playing that shot as he was coming from a break,” said Arvind.

Cheteshwar Pujara is one of those cricketers who has learned all the tricks and techniques of efficient batting from his father who has been his coach since his childhood days. Like every coach, Pujara Sr. remains in touch with his student during tours guiding him and giving him advice whenever the batsmen feels that he is stuck somewhere.

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On Teacher’s Day, India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, tweeted: “Would like to dedicate this knock to my coach/father on #TeachersDay, thank u for teaching me this beautiful game.”

Pujara had just scored a brilliant 166 for India Blue against India Green in the Duleep Trophy at Greater Noida on that day. Six days later, he added another majestic knock to his credit. His unbeaten 256 was the main talking point of the final against India Red.

“I was impressed with the first 100 runs that he scored during his unbeaten 256 he notched in the final and I knew that his confidence is back. One shot, the back foot straight drive that he played was something you don’t see very often and he played that shot with so much ease that I knew his confidence is back,” said Arvind.

Pujara has a reputation of playing marathon innings and broke into the Test team with high expectation following some huge knocks in the domestic season. His father, however, doesn’t feel that the there is any pressure of expectation given the fact that he has forced his way into the Indian team.

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“I can’t talk about others’ expectations but Cheteshwar he has been trained to bat long and score big. He has been doing that consistently in domestic cricket for a long time now. I also expect him to do that at the international stage. The drive, the hunger hasn’t changed. He is somebody who can provide a lot of solidity to the Indian middle order if he plays.”

After a confident boosting run fest in the Duleep Trophy, Pujara would be hoping to play some lengthy knocks when he comes to bat against the visitors New Zealand in the upcoming series which commences from 22nd Sept.