Pujara century again drives home India’s advantage

RANCHI: If Cheteshwar Pujara’s overseas record is ignored for a moment, his statistics at home make for a great read. Before the Ranchi Test, Pujara averaged over 65 at home with eight centuries this season. Three of them came against New Zealand and England before Australia landed. He fell eight short of a century on a ‘less than average’ pitch in Bangalore, after notching 83 and 54 not out in the one-off Test against Bangladesh.

It underlines Pujara’s adaptability in India while some of his teammates find it hard at times. Weaned on some of the flattest pitches in and around Rajkot, Pujara prefers to take his time to dig in. And if allowed to do that, opponents have found it nearly impossible to dislodge him. Australia too learnt that lesson as Pujara spent 54.4 overs mending India’s breaches with a tight and unbeaten 130.

The hallmark of innings like these from Pujara is the offensive comes only after a long period of defence. Only later did he unleash drives. Interesting was Pujara’s smooth acceleration, having taken 155 balls to complete his first fifty. He went after Pat Cummins to pick three boundaries to set the ball rolling for an innings of substance.

By stumps, he had milked Cummins, Australia’s best bowler of the day, for 35 runs off 50 deliveries. It was in stark contrast to the other batsmen. KL Rahul scored 17 off 37 balls, Murali Vijay one off 19 balls, Ajinkya Rahane three off 13 and R Ashwin three off 20. Virat Kohli was out the first ball.

It is this grit to take on the best that makes Pujara the man when the chips are down. “Pujara is a guy who has the game for it, because he takes a lot of pressure and his game is such that you can depend on him and play your natural game,” Murali Vijay said.

Pujara has already aggregated 1187 runs with four centuries in 12 Tests, average nearly 66, in this long home season.