Pujara speaks about his white-ball future
After anchoring India's path to a historic and monumental Test series victory against Australia, India's Test specialist and one of the highly dependable Indian Test batsmen, Cheteshwar Pujara has spoken about what he feels regarding his white-ball future for India in the days to come.
Pujara, who has amassed loads of runs in his List A cricket career, also looks confident about his batting abilities and set of skills in limited-overs cricket. The 30-year-old feels that the moment people see his bat well in ODI or T20 cricket, their beliefs of Pujara being a one-format specialist will overcome a change.
When asked how he looked at Pujara, the Test specialist, he went on to answer that things could change for him if he is treated with more opportunities in white-ball cricket, as he recently said so in an interview.
If you look at my List A cricket, the way I have batted the number of runs that I have scored is very good and when I played white ball cricket for Yorkshire last season, I scored many runs, I think I had a hundred and three fifties in about four innings which shows I can play white ball cricket.
Similarly, Pujara also stated that getting ignored by IPL franchises year after year becomes disappointing, but moving forward and not running behind such things is the proper measure to deal with the disappointment.
Pujara also feels that the lack of opportunities has restricted him from displaying his masterclass in the shortest format of the game, he continued.
Whenever I play white ball cricket, they ask me why are you not picked because you play white ball cricket so well, why are you not playing T20 format. So, I always tell them that I don't get enough opportunity back home. But I accept it and keep working on my game
Pujara, who was often criticized for failing to perform well overseas, silenced the critics in the recently-concluded Test series in Australia as he led the batting charts with 521 runs to his name, which helped him achieve the 'Player of the Series' award.
Although Pujara, at times, has proved his worth in ODI cricket, it is now too late for team India to provide Pujara with match opportunities as the grand World Cup tournament is approaching near.