I am enjoying my comeback in the Test team, says http://www.senore.com/Cricket/CA-Pujara-c1209 – Cricket News Update
Cheteshwar Pujara, the emerging star of Indian cricket, is jubilant after his match-winning performance in the Ahmedabad Test against England and expressed that he is enjoying his game since making a comeback to the national team.
The right-handed top-order batsman registered a double hundred in the first innings of the match, scoring 206 runs off 389 balls, in which he struck 21 boundaries. He complimented his first innings’ efforts by an unbeaten 41 in the second innings to seal the match for the Men in Blue, helping them win by nine wickets.
Pujara was rightly named as the Man of the Match after proving his credentials against a quality bowling attack.
The 24-year-old cricketer expressed that the Ahmedabad pitch was excellent for stroke-play, not offering much help to the bowlers. He believes that posting a mammoth first innings total was the key behind his team’s success.
“The ball was coming nicely onto the bat. There was turn, but it was slow. As a team we knew we had to put up 500-plus and I had to hang around to play my role,” said the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gujarat-c787 batsman. “In the second innings the ball was hard and I had a lot of confidence. I was out for almost a year and since I'm back I'm enjoying it.”
Pujara did not play a single Test for almost 18 months since January 2011 before making a return to the Indian team during the series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/R-Dravid-c2229’s replacement in the Test team.
On the other side of the coin, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AN-Cook-c1026, the England captain, understands that his team needs to work harder in order to compete with the home team in the remaining three matches of the series. The left-handed opener believes that posting a handsome first innings total on the board is extremely important in the 5-day format.
“We'll work hard going into http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 skipper expressed.
The second Test begins from Friday at Mumbai.
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