Top five gutsy Test knocks of Pujara
Cheteshwar Pujara with his gritty 132* in India's first innings at Southampton, has kept the series alive for India. After being dropped for the first Test at Edgbaston, Pujara has answered his critics with a majestic ton. It didn't come that much easily for Pujara though. While all his teammates were busy playing in the richest cricket league in the world, he went to England to play County cricket for Yorkshire. Though he didn't score well, all the testing periods he experienced in all those testing conditions are paying rewards now.
Not only at Southampton, Pujara had played some series defining knocks in the past. Even on his debut, he scored a matured 72 in a successful run chase against Australia at Bangalore. He scored two double tons against Australia and England and in total he has 15 hundreds and many invaluable knocks. Out of all them, we'll have look into his top five knocks.
#5 135 v Eng at Wankhede, Mumbai in 2012
On a spinning Mumbai track, while watching all his partners departing one after the other, Pujara played 350 balls for 135 to help India post 327. With Cook & KP's tons England went on to win the match. But Pujara who batted for 451 minutes showed tremendous grit and skill. Before this Test, he scored a 206 at Ahmedabad and finished as the second highest run-getter in the series after Cook with 438 runs.
#4 50 v SA at Wanderers, Johannesburg in 2018
After losing the series, India were playing for pride at in the final Test. But with cloudy conditions, the pitch looked almost unplayable for the batsmen. In the second Test Pujara was run-out in both the innings. Under huge pressure, he came at the fourth over and played 179 balls for 50 runs and was dismissed in the 61st over. Though he scored only fifty runs, it was a knock of pure determination and temperament. Even the wicket was under scrutiny which makes the fifty even more effective. India eventually won that match by 63 runs.