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Cricket Players'He has lost that part of his game': Dale Steyn points out what's 'lacking' in Cheteshwar Pujara's batting
South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn noted a very interesting aspect of Cheteshwar Pujara's batting, which he feels is holding the Indian batsman down.
South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn noted a very interesting aspect of Cheteshwar Pujara's batting, which he feels is holding the Indian batsman down. Steyn, who bowled to Pujara during India's tour of South Africa in 2013, where the India batsman played a spectacular knock of 153 in the second innings, feels that for some reason, Pujara has cut down on playing shots off his backfoot
Pujara scored 8 off 54 balls in the first innings and 15 off 80 in the second as India failed to put up a decent score in either dig, which cost them big time in the end. Early on Day 6, he nicked Kyle Jamieson to first slip, a dismissal Steyn says he wouldn't have expected from a batsman of Pujara's calibre.
"Out of my memory, I just remember Pujara playing great off his legs. Very, very good off his legs, and eyes underneath the ball. But I do remember him playing some magical cut shots and backfoot drives. Maybe on pitches that a little bit quicker – and Indian wickets are not quick – he played some beautiful balls underneath his eyes through the cover. It's a part of the game that I feel he has lost," Steyn said on ESPNCricinfo.
"That shot today that he played, if he was in a better position, a couple of years maybe, he would have gotten more on the backfoot and punched it through the covers, whereas he just stood there half and half on his front foot. Overall a very soft dismissal – running it down to first slip is a very peculiar way of getting out for a top batter."
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Steyn added that Pujara needs to be a bit more proactive because bowlers in Test cricket will find a way of working him out. Pujara, who had a stellar series against Australia Down Under earlier this year, has been struggling for big scores and if his 73 against England in Chennai is taken out, the batsman hasn't scored a fifty in the last seven innings.
"That's the thing I have seen lacking in Pujara. I'm so used to him rocking onto his backfoot and playing with his hands and good feet movement. He's kind of lost that part of his game. And if you're only hanging on the front foot, good bowlers will not bowl half-volleys to you. And you've got to turn good balls into good shots. That's the difference between Test cricket and First-Class cricket. He's missing out on a lot of runs there," reckons Steyn.
