Cheteshwar Pujara's father disagrees with captain Virat Kohli's strategy
Virat Kohli has won more than he has lost in his short time as captain of Team India, but as expected, has had many questions posed about his style of going about the job. His tactics have been questioned by Cheteshwar Pujara’s father, who has said that he fails to understand the logic of making batsmen retire out, even in a practice match. He feels that this is against the spirit of the game.
With the aim of giving all players a decent amount of time in the middle in the two-day practice match, the Indian team management had decided that players would be given a certain time after which they would retire out and give a chance to the next batsman in the order. This is the step which Arvind Pujara is having trouble understanding.
KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma had just scored unbeaten half-centuries when they had retired out on Day 1. The other batsman to go back to the pavilion in this fashion was Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored 34. He faced more balls than the openers Rahul and Dhawan though.
Kohli was seen setting unorthodox fields on the second day as his bowlers seemed to lose track of their line and length, once having a forward short leg and a silly mid-on to the faster bowlers.
"I don't know what was the logic of these batsmen or the captain (Virat Kohli) but it is not against the spirit of the game", Arvind Pujara, the initial coach and father of Cheteshwar Pujara, said on Sunday to Deccan Chronicle.
"They may have their own tactics. Being a coach for my son, I never had opportunity to discuss such a move with him in the past. As a coach, my job was to teach him the basics of the game. The coach of the current generation apply their own tactics in the match", he added.
One hopes the captaincy tenure of Kohli is not interspersed with interruptions from Pujara’s father like Dhoni’s has been by teammate Yuvraj Singh’s father.
Brief scores: India 258/6 decl. (Rohit Sharma 54*, Shikhar Dhawan 51, KL Rahul 50; Jomel Warrican 2-61) vs West Indies Cricket Board President's XI 281/7 (Shai Hope 118*, Rajendra Chandrika 69, Jomel Warrican 50*; Amit Mishra 4-67) - Match drawn.