Visitors could look to Rahul or Jurel to wear down Aussie attack like how the Saurashtra rock had previously done
A typical cricket highlights package is curated for fans who’ve missed live action due to work or school. In the past, those highlights lasted 30 minutes and the contents featured boundaries and wickets. But to cater to modern diminished attention spans and the swipe generation, even highlights these days last only 15 minutes or less.
Border-Gavaskar Trophy
Hence, the ball that is left alone by the batter is not captured.
“Well left”. An event that frustrates fast bowlers after pounding in from 30 yards and they see no result. They then bowl in areas where the batter wants, only for him to cash in.
Cheteshwar Pujara, one of the architects of India’s last two series wins Down Under, built his entire game around defence and leaving deliveries on length.
Why India will miss Cheteshwar Pujara in Australia? | #BTBHighlights
If you were lucky to wake up in the early hours on that miracle Tuesday of Jan 19, 2021, to witness India take the first steps towards engineering that incredible heist at Gabba, that one shot-the Pujara leave-especially against Pat Cummins, became a vital recurring theme.
Cummins, named Player of the Series for his lung-bursting exploits of labour and skill, dismissed Pujara five times in that series, but the Saurashtra rock faced 459 balls from him. Overall, he faced 928 deliveries. That meant Australia’s most potent weapon used up 49% of his bowling arsenal and energy reserves at just one Indian batter.
On THAT Day Five in 2021, when Cummins largely operated from the end where the ball was misbehaving from a length, Pujara 56 (211b), literally sewed that end up, chewing deliveries, taking nine painful blows (finger, elbow, box, helmet, repeat) and was there till the last hour of the chase, by when most of the bowlers’, especially Cummins’ fuel tanks, were running empty.
He had done the same during India’s ‘victorious draw’ at Sydney, where he made 77 in 205 balls.
In the 2018-19 series where Pujara scored three tons and was player-of-the-series, he faced 1258 deliveries. Pujara will be a part of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy too, but only as a commentator on the Hindi feed.
And Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood expressed happiness at not having to deal with Pujara.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the first Test at Perth on Friday, Hazlewood said, “I’m happy that Puj isn’t here. He’s one that bats time, makes you earn his wicket every time and has done well in Australia on all these tours.”
Tim Paine, former Australia wicketkeeper and the skipper when they lost back-to-back series at home to India, stressed, “A lot of people talk about Rishabh Pant in the last series in Australia, but the guy who won them the series was Pujara. He wore us down and wore our fast bowlers down. He kept getting hit on the body but kept getting up. There is still place for that in cricket,” Paine said in the Grade Cricketer podcast.
Australia are hoping that Marnus Labuschagne will do that role for them as they hope to cook the inexperienced Indian fast bowlers, especially Jasprit Bumrah with attritional play before the series gets to the flatter surfaces of Melbourne and Sydney.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Labuschagne hinted that playing the long game will help Australia. “We understand that getting the Indian bowlers back for their second and third spells, putting them under pressure and letting them come to us and us putting pressure back on them through overs in the field and time in the game, especially over a five-Test series, that’s important. Because as you get into the third, fourth, fifth Test, if they’re trying to play the same team, and those bowlers are rolling into 100, 150, 200 overs by the third Test, it’s going to make a big difference,” the No. 3 batter said.
The question for India though is who will essay Pujara’s role in a line-up that is not short of bravado, but woefully short of form and confidence. KL Rahul, who is now tipped to open with Yashasvi Jaiswal, left a lot of deliveries during successful outings in England and South Africa in 2021. If he recalibrates his defensive game, he could do the Pujara role, as pace does not hurry him.
Dhruv Jurel used up more than 300 balls while scoring twin fifties on a helpful MCG track batting for India ‘A’ vs Australia ‘A’. With the ability to play close to the body, could he do a Pujara, even at No. 6?
