The Player of the Match award for the first India vs Bangladesh Test may have gone to Kuldeep Yadav, who picked up eight wickets in the match, but Cheteshwar Pujara had an equally important role to play in his team's commanding 188 run win in Chattogram. Pujara scored a 90 in the first innings to go with a century in the second to make sure India batted Bangladesh out of the game. In the first innings, Pujara was crucial to India’s chances after they were reduced to 112/4. Knowing the importance of playing a solid knock, Pujara batted through and stitched a huge partnership with Shreyas Iyer. Pujara missed out on his century by 10 runs but made for it in the second by getting to his first hundred for India in nearly 3 years.
What was impressive to see during his knock was the speed at which Pujara scored. Batting at a strike rate of 78.46, Pujara peeled off his fastest ton for India, off just 130 balls. Known to consume deliveries, Pujara is anything but a batter scoring at a brisk pace. But having played similar knocks for Sussex earlier this year, the India No. 3 batter put on a rare show on Day 3 of the 1st Test. Pujara scored 13 boundaries en route to his 19th Test century but it was his innings of 90 in the first dig that he rates higher.
"It was special. I never expected that I would get to the three-figure mark in the second innings. By tea, I was close to 50 but I never realised there was enough time to get to a hundred. It went really well; I have been practicing some shots so it really helped me in this particular game. For me, the special knock was the first innings one where I missed out on a hundred but it was an important knock for the team," Pujara said after India took a 1-0 lead in the series.
{{/usCountry}}"It was special. I never expected that I would get to the three-figure mark in the second innings. By tea, I was close to 50 but I never realised there was enough time to get to a hundred. It went really well; I have been practicing some shots so it really helped me in this particular game. For me, the special knock was the first innings one where I missed out on a hundred but it was an important knock for the team," Pujara said after India took a 1-0 lead in the series.
{{/usCountry}}The victory in Chattogram, followed Australia's crushing win against South Africa has bolstered India's chances and widened their road to the final of the World Test Championship final. India are currently placed third and need to win at least 3 out of their remaining four Tests in the cycle to play the final at The Oval. Pujara, who was dropped from the Indian Test set-up earlier this year after the series against South Africa, batted out of his skin in County Cricket to earn a comeback into and team and is expected to go through the paces as India hope to make it to back-to-back WTC final.
"We'll have to work hard. We'll have to be disciplined and hopefully we'll win at least 3 out of 4 to qualify for the WTC final," mentioned Pujara.