Cheteshwar Pujara's first outing with the bat on this tour of England ended in disappointment as the India batter was bowled for a duck by Mohammed Shami on Day 2 of the four-day warm-up between Leicestershire and Indians. Pujara, one of the four Indian players, representing Leicestershire, played five balls before he dragged the sixth one onto his stumps.
With this, Leicestershire lost their second wicket for 22, as Shami celebrated his second scalp in some fashion. After dismissing Pujara, Shami came jumping and hugged the batter from behind, giving him a rather warm send-off. Pujara reciprocated as he too sported a wry smile on his face while walking back to the change room.
Pujara, who was dropped from the Indian Test set-up after the tour of South Africa and missed the home series against Sri Lanka, returned to the squad for the England tour. This was due to the red-hot form that Pujara showed in his county stint, where he peeled off hat-trick of centuries for Sussex. He began the season with a knock of 109 against Worcestershire, and followed it with innings of 203 vs Durham and 170 not out against Middlesex. Prior to that, Pujara also featured in the Ranji Trophy for Saurashtra, where he registered innings of 91 against Mumbai and 64 not out against Goa.
{{/usCountry}}Pujara, who was dropped from the Indian Test set-up after the tour of South Africa and missed the home series against Sri Lanka, returned to the squad for the England tour. This was due to the red-hot form that Pujara showed in his county stint, where he peeled off hat-trick of centuries for Sussex. He began the season with a knock of 109 against Worcestershire, and followed it with innings of 203 vs Durham and 170 not out against Middlesex. Prior to that, Pujara also featured in the Ranji Trophy for Saurashtra, where he registered innings of 91 against Mumbai and 64 not out against Goa.
{{/usCountry}}Pujara, is likely to be once again be India's No. 3 for the rescheduled fifth Test match against England starting at Edgbaston from July 1. In the previous four Tests of the series, Pujara scored 227 runs with two half-centuries. Three years ago in 2018, when India had toured England, Pujara had scored 278 runs from four Tests.
In a recent interview to the BCCI, Pujara spoke about bouncing back and said that once he went to playing First-Class cricket again, he knew 'everything was back to normal'.
"The most important thing was playing so many First-Class games. I was preparing for this when I was playing back home before I joined Sussex. In the three games I played for Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy, I found my rhythm, knew that I was batting well. It was about getting a big score and so when I had that in my first game, I knew that everything is back to normal now. (I was) finding my footwork, the back lift was coming along well," he mentioned.