Pujara counts benefits of County after 12th Test ton
galle — County cricket teaches you a lot and helps you grow as a cricketer, says Cheteshwar Pujara as the Indian batsman emphasised the benefits of playing in England’s domestic competition after scoring his 12th Test century.
Pujara scored 153 in India’s mammoth 600 against Sri Lanka in the opening Test.
“Playing County cricket is always challenging. So you never get easy runs. Most of the times, you are playing on challenging wickets. So as a cricketer, it teaches you a lot. You grow as a cricketer, your technique improves and when you come and play international cricket again, you have some experience of playing first-class cricket and you are always in touch with the game. So playing some County games did help me,” Pujara, who played for Northamptonshire, said. “I played about four County matches which always helps. When I have some time in between Test matches and if I am not part of the IPL, I prefer to go and play some County matches. It gives me exposure, playing in different conditions, facing different bowlers,” he added.
Pujara, though, rated the hundred he made against Sri Lanka at Colombo in the previous tour in 2015, above today’s effort.
“As a batsman, you always want to perform well on challenging pitches. Especially when I got my 145, it was at SSC, that particular wicket was more challenging than this one. When you score a hundred on such wickets, it is more satisfying than this one. But when you are doing a job for the team, I always enjoy scoring hundreds.”
Sri Lanka put in a concerted effort in the morning session to bowl better than they did on day one and scalped four wickets. However, Hardik Pandya came out to bat at no.8 and struck his maiden halfcentury to maintain India’s dominant position.
“He’s a very good all-rounder. When it comes to his batting, he is trusting his strengths. The way he was batting, I think that is the way he should be batting going ahead. It was the right situation for him.” — PTI