While on one hand, the overseas players are showing their magic in the Indian Premier League, one of the pillars of the Indian test team is making the English fans witness the magic of his bat. In his debut match for Sussex, the Indian star Cheteshwar Pujara hit a magnificent double century in the second innings of the match. This season was already a treat for the subcontinent fans as they enjoyed the sight of Mohammad Rizwan and Cheteshwar Pujara playing together, and the latter getting back to form is a cherry on the pie for fans.
The previous few months were not so good for Pujara, as the immense contributor to Men in Blue was not in his normal touch. After his heroics at the historic Gabba victory, he could manage to have only a few good scores in the longest format playing for the Indian team. Although his ability to hold the crease has helped India in crucial victories like the one at Lord's after 7 years, the runs column for the elegant batter was not up to the expectations.
As a result of which, the duo of Rahane and Pujara who were the pillars of the team for a long time were dropped in the home series against Sri Lanka when they had a good chance of ending their drought of runs. It was a long period of 9 years and 98 test matches when the team was playing without their two best test batters. Because of this the duo chose to play for Ranji's trophy and had to get back in the groove to make their importance felt.
For someone as experienced as these two, it was only a matter of time to do something which they have done for a longer period Indians. And right in their respective first match in the Ranji Trophy, which they both played against each other, Rahane scored a century against Pujara's Saurashtra, and the latter played a good knock of 91 runs against the former's team Mumbai. The fans were happy to see these two getting back to form and expected the two to get selected in any of the IPL franchises during the mega auction. On one hand, Rahane got a chance after getting selected for KKR, while Pujara remained unsold.
But Pujara chose to stick to the longest format and in an attempt to work even better to be his earlier version, chose to play county cricket. And he proved his decision and Sussex's faith right by scoring a double hundred on his debut for Sussex. His importance for the Indian team is so high, that he made headlines in the Indian cricketing world playing for County cricket when the Indian Premier League is making it to the headlines of the entire cricketing world. One can just hope that this Indian star and the modern-day wall of India gets his confidence back with this knock and his county stint turns out to be a boon for India, which can have their star doing wonders for the Indian team in the oldest and longest format of the game again.
Author:- Ashwin Jangam (Cricket Analyst, Host, Poet, Entertainer )
Insta I'd:- cricket_creativity