'There is a little bit of blood clot on the shoulder': Cheteshwar Pujara talks body blows he endured in Brisbane Test
Cheteshwar Pujara copped a total of 11 blows to his body, between the head and abdomen, while batting during the fourth innings of the Brisbane Test.
Cheteshwar Pujara put up one of the most resolute displays of batting during the fourth innings of the Brisbane Test between India and Australia. Pujara scored the slowest Test half-century of his career but there was so much more to his gritty knock.
With India chasing 328 to win and one wicket down early, Pujara weathered the storm and how? He batted for 211 balls, scoring 56, the third fifty of the series, but the sight of a defiant Pujara taking repeated blows to his body to ensure India did not lose a wicket, will go down in the annals of Indian cricket.
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Pujara copped a total of 11 blows to his body, between the head and abdomen. There was one blow in particular which looked real nasty but thankfully for Pujara and India, no severe harm was done. "There is a little bit of blood clot on the shoulder but it's all settled, now. I have recovered well," Pujara told NDTV.
"You have all the protection when you are wearing the helmet. But the one I got hit on the finger was really painful. That was the toughest blow. I thought my finger was broken. I was first hit on my finger during the net session in Melbourne. I carried the niggle to Sydney. But when I was hit on the same finger in Brisbane, it was unbearable."
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Initially in the series, Pujara was criticised for his slow batting, but it was the same tactic that the batsman admits helped India wear Australia down. "Credit goes to Australian bowlers. They study your batting, they assess a lot of videos and then they come up with a plan. To break that, you need lot of patience, you need to figure out things to break such game plan," Pujara said.
"When things are difficult out in the middle, you don't want to throw your wicket away and put the team under pressure. When someone plays a long innings, it helps the other batsmen who are walking in next."
