Cheteshwar Pujara signs six-game County Championship deal with Gloucestershire

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Cheteshwar Pujara signed a short-term deal with County side Gloucestershire for this season on Wednesday. Gloucestershire, who will be playing in Division One for the first time since 2005, signed up the Indian top-order batsman on a six-game contract.

This is set to be Pujara's fourth county, following spells at Derbyshire (2014), Yorkshire (2015 and 2018) and Nottinghamshire (2017).

Pujara, who is the only Test specialist in the contracted list of 27 Indian players not to feature in the IPL, is free because of his lack of involvement in the Indian Premier League.

The 32-year-old's first game will be the season opener against Yorkshire at Headingley on April 12 and will leave before the start of the T20 Blast season in May.

"I am really excited to get the opportunity to represent Gloucestershire this season. The club has a rich cricketing history, and this is a great opportunity to be a part of it and contribute to its success.

"I am grateful to the club for giving me this opportunity and cannot wait to get to Bristol to meet my teammates and score some runs. I have really enjoyed the experience of coming over to the UK and playing county cricket over the last few years and I am looking forward to building on that whilst continuing to improve my game," Pujara said.

"Cheteshwar is a player with great temperament who will add international experience to the squad. He is undoubtedly one of the best batsmen in world cricket and we are very fortunate to have him in our squad for the start of the County Championship campaign.

"Adding Pujara to a strong batting line-up gives me great confidence ahead of our opening County Championship matches," Richard Dawson, Gloucestershire head coach said.

However, Pujara's record in County Championship is something he would like to improve on. He avergaes 29.93 across 36 innings in the competition.

Pujara is the first Indian player since Javagal Srinath in 1995 to play for Gloucestershire. Srinath was fairly succesful for the side, picking up 87 Championship wickets at an average of 19.09.