'CSK Snub Fuelled Revolution In White-Ball Game' - Cheteshwar Pujara After Success In Royal London Cup

Cheteshwar Pujara, a veteran of Indian Test matches, stunned many spectators with his batting in the Royal London One Day Cup. Pujara, who amassed 624 runs from 9 games at a never-before-seen strike rate of 111.62, became the second-highest run scorer in the competition thanks to a couple quick hundreds. 

At the ripe old age of 34, Pujara got down to discuss the development of his style after his side Sussex was eliminated from the competition in the tournament’s semi-final.

This Is A Different Side Of My Game For Sure: Cheteshwar Pujara

The batsman said to The Cricket Podcast that the Indian Premier League’s bench-sitting policy at his team, Chennai Super Kings, inspired him to pick up new skills. 

“This is a different side of my game for sure. There is no doubt about it. Pitches were good, slightly flat but even those surfaces, you need to have that intent of scoring at a higher strike-rate. This is something which I have always worked on.

“I was part of CSK a year before last and when I didn’t play any games and saw the guys prepare, I told myself that if I want to play the shorter format. I always used to put a big prize on my wicket but in the shorter formats, you still want to play your shots in your game,” Pujara said on The Cricket Podcast. 

Executing Shots During Training Gave Me Confidence: Cheteshwar Pujara

Pujara, who is well-known for his resilience under pressure and for protecting the team’s number 4 batsman, was observed making aggressive use of the whole playing surface. The athlete mentioned the same thing and indicated that he expects to succeed in the shorter format because a lot of work went into it. 

“I worked on it before the Royal London One-Day Cup. I went with Grant and spoke to him that there are some shots which I want to work. When we were training, he told me that I am executing those really well and that gave me confidence.

“I thought that if I could keep working on some of the lofted shots which could help me and if I can execute those, I could be successful even in shorter formats,” added Pujara.

He was previously benched from the Test team and instructed to return to domestic cricket in order to restore form.

Pujara, on the other hand, travelled to England to play in the county league, where he regained his form. 

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