Watch: Just a few feet away from India’s nightmare start in 3rd Test in Rajkot, Cheteshwar Pujara is batting at nets with Saurashtra team | Cricket News

As India’s inexperienced top order crumbled on what seemed to be a good batting wicket on Day 1 of the India vs England Test in Rajkot veteran batter Cheteswar Pujara was seen batting in the nets a few feet away from the game ahead of the Saurashtra’s clash against Manipur starting tomorrow.
In the nets, Pujara was seen playing a couple of solid defensive shots getting his stride forward and a few aggressive shots as well.With the unavailability of players like KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli the team had an option of reverting to the 36-year-old who has been piling on runs in the Ranji Cricket this season. However, the selectors have opted to look the other way.
Shubman Gill who has replaced at Pujara is pulling no trees either. Anil Kumble, while talking about Pujara would go on to say,“He has been given the cushion perhaps even a Cheteshwar Pujara didn’t get, because although he (Pujara) has played over a 100 Tests, I keep coming back to him mainly because that was his place not too long ago.”

At the Niranjan Shah Stadium, Cheteshwar Pujara is sweating it out with the Saurashtra team ahead of their Ranji Trophy match. Handful of spectators have come down in the Lunch break to see him bat 🙂 pic.twitter.com/tgD3hhXweH
— Sahil Malhotra (@Sahil_Malhotra1) February 15, 2024
The other noticeable thing with this fragile batting lineup has been the ability to play spin. The young batters let the spinners dominate against them and at times seemed like were not technically skilful enough to put visiting tweakers under pressure. On the contrary Former England off-spinner Graeme Swann revealed that he did not like bowling to the 35-year-old. “The one batter I didn’t like bowling to was (Cheteshwar) Pujara because was very nimble on his feet,” Swann said in a podcast for Sky Sports Cricket.
Pujara has also recently carved his name up among the stalwarts of Indian domestic cricket as he became the fourth batter to cross 20,000 runs in first-class cricket The 35-year-old has achieved the landmark in 260 matches at an average of 51.96. Ahead of him, there is Indian coach Rahul Dravid (23,794 runs at 55.33), Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar (25,396 runs at 57.84), and little master Sunil Gavaskar (25,834 runs at 51.46).