'Let the guy play at whatever strike rate he wants to': Karthik hails Pujara as India's 'kingpin' ahead of WTC final

Dinesh Karthik came to Cheteshwar Pujara's defence, calling the concept of strike-rate 'utter nonsense' and explained how numbers and stats alone aren't a testament to the batsman's performance.

Wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik feels the talk surrounding Cheteshwar Pujara's low strike-rate is not a matter of concern and that the batsman should be left along with his own style. Pujara has never been a brisk run-scorer for India, but when he scored at a strike-rate of just below 30 during the India-Australia Test series, it got people talking, irrespective of the fact that his innings went a long way in India drawing the Sydney Test and winning at Gabba.

Will Cheteshwar Pujara be back at his run-scoring best? (Getty Images)

Karthik came to Pujara's defence, calling the concept of strike-rate 'utter nonsense' and explained how numbers and stats alone aren't a testament to the batsman's performance. Pujara had a rather average series against England at home, scoring 133 runs in four Tests, but Karthik reckons it shouldn't be a matter of concern at all heading into the World Test Championship final.

"If you take the number of Test matches that have gotten over in four days – it is about 80-82 percent. I feel this strike-rate is absolute nonsense. So, why bother about strike rate, let the guy play at whatever strike rate he wants to play, as long as he is able to win Test matches for India," Karthik said during the Twitter Spaces session organised by Star Sports ahead of the WTC final.

"Now, Pujara, why hasn't he scored runs? You have to understand, if you take the last match, he was playing against ranked turners, where the team was finding it hard to score 200 runs and to expect Pujara to score a 100 is unfair. We have played on some tough conditions, you can't always put up numbers to justify how well a guy is playing."

Karthik stressed on Pujara's gritty knocks in the Sydney and Brisbane Test, explaining that had it not been for the batsman's rock-solid innings, India would have struggled to save the series. He revealed it was something even Australia speedster Pat Cummins admitted and acknowledged.

"If you take that Sydney Test, the number of blows that he just took. Pat Cummins was talking to me about that in IPL – saying the difference between India drawing the Test match and losing it was one man, Cheteshwar Pujara. The amount of time that he batted, he was giving him body blows," Karthik added.

"If you had put any of the other Indian batsmen at that stage of the day, early on when there is probably a little bit of juice, they would have struggled. There was a good chance we would have capitulated in that game. For us to not cross that hurdle, to get to Brisbane unscathed, the reason was Pujara in a big way.

"We can sit down and say, oh he has not got a 100. It doesn't matter. We know his calibre, we know his quality, his ability to play a long inning. I have no doubt that Pujara is a kingpin for us in Test cricket and we don't need to be too engrossed in numbers to get 100-plus runs."