With the three-Test series against Sri Lanka looming, Cheteshwar Pujara sought to allay concerns over his batting form ahead of India ‘A’’s second unofficial ‘Test’ against Australia ‘A’.

 

“Things are shaping up well,” said Pujara who made 55 and 42 in the first match. “I have scored runs on difficult wickets. To be honest there weren’t that many big scores on this wicket. Even scoring a fifty was helpful for the team. Of course, I would love to have a hundred but when you play on difficult wickets you can’t expect to score 200s and 300s.”

 

Pujara has reached double figures in 18 of his last 22 Test innings — of which three were half-centuries — but has failed to convert them into bigger scores. This even led to his being dropped in favour of Rohit Sharma for the last Test against Australia.

 

But, last week, he received the backing of coach Rahul Dravid, who said he did not find “anything too wrong” with his batting. “I am timing the ball well,” said Pujara. “Things that I am working on are coming along well. The way I am batting, I should hopefully get a good score.”

 

While there is much riding on this game for Pujara, Australian left-arm spinner Ashton Agar chose to approach bowling in these conditions as part of a learning curve. “For a spinner, India is great,” said Agar. “You will come across wickets that turn. But you will also find batsmen who are better players of spin. So it is a challenge to bowl to good players of spin.”

 

Agar also said that he had spoken to past and present players from India about the craft.

 

“I learnt the pace to bowl on these wickets and I know how the batsmen want to play me. They might wait for me to go a bit short and then sit back and cut. They pick the length early so I have to adjust quickly to the way they play,” he said.

 

“I have spoken to Gautam Gambhir. He was in Western Australia just before I left for here, and he played in a match against me. So he could give me some feedback,” said Agar.

(The Hindu)