'You can't bat so slow, cricket has changed' - Pragyan Ojha questions Cheteshwar Pujara's intent

Cheteshwar Pujara was the star for India when they won the historic series in Australia a couple of seasons ago. The right-handed batsman had faced a staggering 1258 balls while batting for over 30 hours and finished the series as the top run-scorer. Pujara had scored 521 runs, helping India register their first-ever Test series win on the Australian soil.

One of the features of that display from Pujara was he never really ran out of patience. Following the display, he was lauded from all over for his starring role. Pujara is using the same tactics in the ongoing series too. However, he has been facing criticism from all around for the same tactics and the reason behind it is his failure to score big like he did in the 2018/19 series.

In the wake of his latest failure in the ongoing third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, former India spinner Pragyan Ojha has questioned his intent. India’s No.3 batsman did score 50 runs but played 176 balls. It was one of his slowest fifties in Test cricket as India find themselves in a spot of bother in the ongoing game.

“The way Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill were playing on Day 2, 70 for no loss. I think, in that evening session, it became so slow and we lost the momentum. After that today, Australians came with a very good plan. They were looking to make us uncomfortable mentally with those bouncers. They were able to do that successfully,” Pragyan Ojha told Sports Today.

“Cheteshwar Pujara, being the most senior member of the side, it’s important, he shows that intent. He was the one who inspired us to win the 2018 series. But now, everybody is questioning his intent. You can’t bat so slow, cricket has changed. You’re playing a Test match, people are batting at a certain strike rate. That’s what you have to maintain. You have to maintain that pace, you can’t go below that pace. If you do that, your team will face consequences. That’s what India had to go through sadly,” he added.

Deep Dasgupta criticizes Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara

Former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta critcised Cheteshwar Pujara too and was also not impressed with stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane’s performance. Rahane scored 22 off 70 balls before being sent back by Pat Cummins. Criticising the duo, Dasgupta said that Pujara as well as Rahane lacked game awareness while batting by not scoring at a good pace while facing the old ball.