JOIN USYou wouldn’t associate Cheteshwar Pujara with playing mind games with the opposition. It may not have been his intention either, but the double centurion on the day made an honest assessment of Australian batting that may not amuse the visiting batsmen.
“They need to apply themselves,” said Pujara with a straight face when he was asked to analyse the Aussie batting that has found the going tough against Indian spinners.
Michael Clarke and company had lost all their 20 wickets to Indian spinners in the Chennai Test, which the hosts won by eight wickets, while they gave away seven in the first innings of the second Test here. Fighting to avoid an innings defeat, Australia have lost two second-innings batsmen, both to R Ashwin, to find themselves on a sticky wicket.
“They don’t know how to go about (their batting) on turning tracks. They have prepared (for the tour) but we know what their strengths are and we are working on their weaknesses. And I think our spinners have been doing it successfully so far. Our spinners need to continue doing what they are doing,” he remarked.
Following his maiden double hundred against England in Ahmedabad, Pujara had come up with similar statement while talking about Englishmen’s batting. England eventually lost that match by eight wickets. “It's going to be a challenging task for them," Pujara had said then when England had lost three quick wickets on the second day. "The way they were batting it looked like they were a fragile batting line-up for sure." Pujara, however, refused to rate his two double tons.
“They were both different conditions. That wicket was slightly easier to bat on. This was initially difficult to bat on but later on there was a bit of turn today more than yesterday. But I think it’s difficult to compare the two innings. I can’t say which one was more challenging.”