Cheteshwar Pujara opens up on his most crucial partnerships in Tests
Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara is the most dependable batsman for Team India in the red-ball cricket. In the past decade, Pujara has played several crucial knocks and put the team in a comfortable situation. Recently Pujara opened up on two of his most memorable innings and coincidentally both of them came against Australia in 2017 home series.
Pujara rated the series as the “most intense” series he has ever played. He recalled the partnership with wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha in Ranchi and termed it as his favourite.
“To single out my favourite batting partnership would be very difficult. But I would like to go with my partnership with Wriddhiman Saha at Ranchi in 2017. It was close to 200-run partnership, the team was in trouble. We lost about 5-6 wickets, when the scoreboard was somewhere 250. If we were bowled out for 300-350, we knew the Australians were very well prepared to score those runs,” he said on Fever Network’s initiative ‘100 Hours 100 Stars’ video
“So, we had to put up a decent total, we had a good partnership, and our total was close to 500 at the end. That partnership was crucial for that series, because it was the most intense Test series I have played,” he added.
Pujara also remembered the partnership with India's Tests vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane in the same series in Bengaluru.
“Another partnership I remember is my partnership with Ajinkya Rahane in the same series in the 2nd innings. It was a match-winning partnership,” he said.
“Our bowlers really bowled well in the 4th innings. In the first innings, we didn’t bat well. The Australians had a good lead over us. So, there was pressure on us to put up a decent total for them to chase. My partnership with Rahane was crucial in that game,” Pujara added.
