Cheteshwar Pujara: It might look ugly, but I know what's best for the team

Cheteshwar Pujara on Day Five of the fourth Test against Australia at Brisbane recently. Pic/AFP

To some cricket lovers, Cheteshwar Pujara's strike rate has become as important as the number of runs he scores. This, despite the fact that he has bailed out the Indian team on numerous occasions. Pujara faced 928 balls to score 271 runs that included three half-centuries during India's recent triumph in Australia. His strike rate of 29.20 was again threatening to become the talking point but the series went India's way.

While Pujara has no qualms about his batting style, the Saurashtra stalwart has a simple way of dealing with this issue. "I try and avoid the outside noise. I don't look at social media when I'm playing a Test series. I completely avoid it...what are the views on my batting or the Indian team. I try and stay away from it as well as any article or news which are positive or negative.

‘I avoid the news'
"Even if I've done well and if someone has written a good article about it, I try and avoid it, especially during a series. Mentally, I'm in a decent space," Pujara said during a chat with journalists Jamie Alter and Meha Bhardwaj Alter on their YouTube channel, Cricket Fables.

However, at times whatever is said about him reaches him via a third party. "Yes, there are times when I still get to know about it from someone that this person has said this or this person has commented this or social media is talking about this. When I'm batting, I always try and tell myself that my goal is to make sure that I do the right thing for the team. It might look ugly, it might look like I'm not comfortable, but I know what is best for the team because I've played so many Test matches and I've been part of this team for so many years.

"I try and do my best according to my knowledge or what suits me and my strengths, which can help the team," he said. Regarding his warrior-like innings in the fourth Test at Brisbane where he took 11 blows on his body during his valuable knock of 56, Pujara said: "I had a clear game plan, which was to make sure that we did not lose a wicket in the first session or try and lose as few wickets as possible in the first session because that would give them [Australia] an advantage moving into the second and third sessions. Fortunately, we just lost one wicket in the first session and my game plan was very clear - even if I don't get too many runs in the first session, I'll just stick around and try and get set and then try and accelerate in the second and third sessions, which is what happened," he said.

Body blows
Pujara revealed why he had to cop those body blows: "Especially from one end, the ball wasn't rising much and then at times it was rising more than what I was expecting. It was becoming very difficult to defend those balls with the bat. There was the option of defending with the bat, but it wasn't the safe option because the ball could hit your glove and go to short leg, leg slip or gully or you could be out caught-behind. So, I wanted to rule that option out.

‘Really painful'
"That is why I was taking blows on my body. Getting hit on the helmet? Yeah, it wasn't ideal but I wasn't worried about it because I knew that as long as I'm there and as long as I'm getting hit on the body and not getting out, it's fine. "A couple of blows were really painful. The one which hit me below the shoulder the second time was a little more painful and the most painful one was the one where I got hit on my finger, because that was the second time that I got hit there."

271
No. of runs scored by Cheteshwar Pujara in the recently-concluded Test series against Australia