Australia vs India 2018: Cheteshwar Pujara Defends Decision to Take a Rest Day

Indian bowlers had to toil hard in the warm-up match against Cricket Australia XI. The hosts made 544 runs in their innings and gave India a run for the money. In fact, most importantly, Cricket Australia XI was successful in keeping Indian bowlers for 151 overs to tire them out in the field. Thus, Indian team management decided to take a rest day to keep themselves afresh. Subsequently, Cheteshwar Pujara defends the team’s decision.

India will like to tick the right boxes in the first Test match at Adelaide. Pujara reckons the team was able to get what they wanted from the practice match. Indian openers KL Rahul and Murali Vijay got the runs under their belt to be high on confidence. Rahul was not in the best of forms and the 62 runs knock in the second innings must have done him a world of good.

Imperative to maintain the workload and be fresh for the opening match.

“We got what we wanted in the practice game and the trainer and the physio has been monitoring the workload,” Pujara told reporters on Monday.

“We thought that it was best to take a break today and train for the next two days and be fresh for the Test match.”

Pujara rejected suggestions the inability of India’s bowlers to dismiss the CA XI, who made 514 in their only innings in the SCG tour game, was a concern.

“Conceding 500 runs in a warm-up game doesn’t mean anything … we are not very much worried about it,” he said.

Read More: Most Runs in IPL 2018.

Indian bowlers looked ordinary in the warm-up match as they failed to hit the right areas. However, Pujara believes their bowlers know where they should bowl in the Australian conditions. Furthermore, they have all the experience to deliver the goods.

“Our bowlers know what they have to do … they know what line and lengths to bowl in Australia.

“We utilised all three days (in Sydney) properly. We also had some net practice while the game was going on so I don’t think it was a concern at all.

“We got enough practice and we did what we wanted,” Cheteshwar Pujara said.

Read More: Most Wickets in IPL 2018

The Indian bowlers have shown the right promise to do well in the recent past. They were able to scalp all the sixty wickets on the South African tour and also did well on the England tour. Subsequently, they would like to come up with a solid performance in the forthcoming Test series.