Mohammed Azharuddin to Cheteshwar Pujara: Play county cricket

Mohammed Azharuddin

Mohd Azharuddin at the CCIâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088dressing room on Saturday. Pic/Subodh Mayure

Former India skipper Mohammed Azharuddin advised India Test No. 3 Cheteshwar Pujara and others who are not playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) to play county cricket and get accustomed to English conditions.

"I would like some of the players who are not playing in the IPL to go and play county cricket and get the experience of playing on different type of wickets. At this time of the year, the ball moves a lot there. It will be good experience and exposure for Pujara and some others which will stand them in good stead when they go to England or play in conditions where the ball tends to move and bounce," said Azhar, who played for Derbyshire in the early 1990s.

Reacting to all the noise around Team India skipper Virat Kohli's aggression, Azhar agreed to what Sourav Ganguly had to say on the issue.

"Maybe Dada was right that his aggression was coming in the way of his batting. But, that's how he plays and we have to respect that," he said.

However, Azhar felt that the ICCâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088should have handled the Kohli-Steven Smith saga in a more mature way instead of letting it drift and go out of hand as it did in the recently concluded India-Australia series.