Cheteshwar Pujara's father Arvind: His county stint was invaluable

Cheteshwar Pujara's father Arvind feels pre-England tour games for Yorkshire helped son to acclimatise better

The two months that Cheteshwar Pujara spent at Yorkshire in his bid to get acclimatised for the grueling England Test series helped India's Test specialist batsman to a great extent, said the Saurashtra batsman's father. According to Arvind Pujara, his son's county cricket stint mentally prepared him for the challenges. Pujara was re-signed by Yorkshire after he helped them win the county championships in 2015. He has also played for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

"It was a fruitful stint. Though he did not score much for Yorkshire [172 runs in 12 innings with a highest score of 41], he played in some of the toughest conditions in those two months there. When he went to England, it was quite cold. And then, there was rain due to which the pitches were damp. In the latter part of the season, the temperature was quite high. When he played in those conditions, he got himself quite equipped to face the English bowlers in the series," Pujara Sr told mid-day yesterday.

Arvind Pujara

Arvind, who is also Cheteshwar's first coach and mentor, couldn't watch his son score a strokeful 86 in the first Test against the West Indies at the Saurashtra Cricket Association stadium since he was down with a back problem. Cheteshwar did not make the playing XI for the opening Test against England at Birmingham, but scored a hundred in the fourth Test at Southampton.

India's No. 3 batsman enjoyed his best performance in 2017 when he went past the 1000-run mark in a calendar year for the first time in his career. It gave rise to debates whether Pujara was batting at his best. Arvind, however, dismissed any talk concerning Cheteshwar's peak. "If you start thinking that you have reached your peak, you become complacent and your progress can be hampered. It is not worth thinking about whether this is my best phase or not. Results can go either way, but a good work ethic will always keep you in good stead," concluded Arvind, a former first-class cricketer.

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