Cheteshwar Pujara was just deemed as a test specialists with the ability to become the next wall of India after the great Rahul Dravid but his image of a batsman with poor strike will surely change after a blasting innings in today’s Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy encounter.
Pujara playing for Saurashtra played a scintillating innings of 100 runs of just 61 balls to help his side post a mammoth total of 188 runs against a strong Railways team. His innings included 14 classical fours and one six but still went in vein as Railways chased down the target and won the game by 5 wickets with 2 balls remaining in their innings.
The hero of Australia test series will have set some eyeballs rolling over him after he was unsold in this year’s IPL auction. His blistering innings will ensure that the franchise owners get him under the radar to play for their respective team if any player gets injured which is a certainty in all terms.
Pujara who last played an IPL game in 2014, earlier told in an interview in 2018 that its the “Public Perceptions” that he has missed on an IPL contract.
“Perception I would say has played a major role. If you check my performance in List A (average of 58 plus over 88 games) and T20s (strike rate of 105.18 in 58 games), I still have a lot to offer in shorter formats. I am not at all worried as I know my opportunity would come at some point of time,”
