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Cricket PlayersIPL 2021: How Rahul Dravid's advice helped Cheteshwar Pujara adapt to T20 cricket
IPL 2021: Ahead of making a comeback in IPL after 7 years, Pujara revealed a piece of major advice he received from former Indian captain Rahul Dravid early on in his career.
Cheteshwar Pujara has earned many accolades for his brilliance in the longest format of the game. He has developed an image of a Test specialist batsman but was never considered a go-to player in the limited-overs format.
But in 2021, things seem to have changed as Pujara is getting ready to ply his trade for the Chennai Super Kings in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) which begins on April 9 in Chennai.
Also read: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly says IPL 2021 going ahead as per schedule
Ahead of making a comeback in IPL after 7 years, Pujara revealed a piece of major advice he received from former Indian captain Rahul Dravid early on in his career regarding improving his T20 batting.
While speaking to ESPN Cricinfo, Pujara said that there was a time when he was concerned that his performance in Tests may get ‘spoiled’ if he concentrated too much on improving his T20 batting. But the advice from Rahul Dravid helped him changed the perception.
“It all comes with experience. When I was playing the T20 format in the past, I had a little bit of a worry that what if my Test cricket gets spoiled? Then there will be some technical error once the IPL gets over. But now I am over that,” Pujara said.
“What I realised over a period of time is my natural game, my strengths, will never go away. This advice I got from Rahul bhai [Dravid] long ago, but I would still like to mention it. He told me that your natural game will not change although you try playing different shots.” he added.
"I started playing cricket at an early age. I made my first-class debut in 2005-06. So, it is almost 15 years now where I've played this game. So, if I am playing the T20 format now, when I prepare for a Test series, I won't forget Test cricket. Adapting to the T20 format and moving into Test cricket again won't be an issue, for sure,” he further elaborated.
Pujara’s last played appearance in the IPL came in 2014 for Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings). Before that, he had played for Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore as well. He has played 30 IPL games and has 390 runs at a strike rate of 99.74.
