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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  Cheteshwar Pujara | Time to make it count
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Cheteshwar Pujara | Time to make it count

Instead of focusing on aesthetics, Cheteshwar Pujara needs to use the IPL to get consistent runs to grab the attention of selectors

Pujara plays a shot during an IPL match on 22 April. Photo: PTIPremium
Pujara plays a shot during an IPL match on 22 April. Photo: PTI

OTHERS :

Keeping the 2015 International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup in mind, the seventh season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is an important marker for one batsman in particular. This batsman opens the innings for Kings XI Punjab. Before you think we are talking about Virender Sehwag, remember that the Nawab of Najafgarh hasn’t experienced a successful 2013-14 First Class season (393 runs at an average of 24.56 in 11 matches) to be in contention for a place in the Indian team. It is his opening partner, Cheteshwar Pujara, who needs to make this opportunity count.

Pujara’s story is an odd one. He made his Test debut in 2010 and has been deemed a good-enough batsman for the international level since. Yet, he had to wait a long time to become a permanent member of the India’s Test playing eleven. The team had a mature and settled batting order and it was tough to accommodate him then. Once the transition period, when the big players retired and the team was rebuilt, set in, he got his chance and made it count.

But this story is now repeating itself in the One Day International (ODI) arena. Despite a List A average of 55.03, including two 100s and a 50 in three innings in the 2012-13 NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, he had to wait for the tour of Zimbabwe in mid-2013 to take a shot at making a career in ODI. And once there, he waited longer for his debut, sitting out the first three games even in a second-string squad. With scores of 13 and 0, he failed to make an impression and was sidelined from limited-overs again for seven months.

India’s embarrassing losses in South Africa and New Zealand, in what was deemed the start of the run-up to their title defence next year, meant that Pujara was included in the Asia Cup squad.

“I am ready to play ODI cricket. And I am working hard on my fitness and fielding, apart from my batting, because these two aspects will aid me a lot in the limited-overs’ format," Pujara had said, after being included in the squad for Asia Cup. But he still didn’t get a look-in. It was largely because of an inflexible rotation policy, which saw no Pujara even in a dead game against Afghanistan.

It is now clear that he needs something extraordinary to grab the attention of selectors and team management. And that’s where the IPL helps.

Last week, something to this effect transpired at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates. Kings XI Punjab chased a mammoth total of 192 versus Rajasthan Royals, with Glenn Maxwell and David Miller scripting an astonishing run-chase. Kings XI were always behind the curve after a poor start, losing two wickets for 10 runs. Pujara then held up one end together even as Maxwell and Miller went on an overdrive. It was a point not lost out on their captain George Bailey. “We know what we are going to get from Pujara and we want consistency. It is nice to have someone we can bat around. In a chase like that, it is always nice to have wickets in hand. He played that role really well. He got Maxwell on strike and then he got Miller on strike, and chipped in with a couple of boundaries late when we really needed to find those," said the winning captain, after Rajasthan Royals lost by seven wickets.

While Pujara did play a vital knock in the Twenty20 (T20) context, it was primarily comprised of forceful shots, ugly to look at, compared to his beautiful stroke-play in the longer format of the game. As with other batsmen, this shortest format requires him to be inventive, but it doesn’t come naturally to Pujara. In this trait perhaps, he is more like V.V.S. Laxman than Rahul Dravid.

The reason Dravid found more success than Laxman in the limited-overs arena was because he played well within his limitations, yet not compromising his stroke-making. It is something that Pujara needs to take a leaf from, and the more T20 cricket he plays, the better he will understand this. A ready example is taken from the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 22 April, where he smacked Dale Steyn for three fours in one over, all of them proper cricketing shots. “It is difficult (to generate ample power for shots in T20 cricket). I have been working on it and trying to improve with every game. This will help me even in ODI cricket," he said, after scoring 35 runs off 32 balls.

The need of the hour for Pujara is to get consistent runs under his belt as an opener (read top-order batsman) and be the batsman who survives on the crease. In South Africa and New Zealand, conditions that the Men in Blue will face next year at the World Cup, Indians struggled to find a batsman who could occupy the crease long enough so as to not over-burden Virat Kohli and M.S. Dhoni. Pujara already has these desired traits and ought to use the IPL to advertise them.

Chetan Narula is the author of Skipper: A Definitive Account of India’s Greatest Captains.

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Published: 23 Apr 2014, 08:01 PM IST
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