'Paying a lot of attention to fitness'

Cheteshwar Pujara, who has climbed to his career-best fifth in the ICC Test rankings for batsmen after a fine series in South Africa, said he had worked hard on the fitness in the last six months after his knee surgery in 2011.

Pujara aggregated 280 runs in the recently-concluded two-Test series against South Africa.

“I am really satisfied with my performance over the last one to one-and-a-half years. I have worked hard on my game. I have also worked hard on my fitness over the last 4-6 months after the surgery. I am paying a lot of attention to fitness. I was a bit lazy in my gym sessions earlier,” Pujara said.

“Improved fitness helps one to concentrate more when batting. I want to keep improving as a cricketer,” said the 25-year-old batsman, who underwent a surgery in London after tearing a knee ligament in IPL-4 at Bangalore. 

Pujara, however, refused to take any questions on the tour of South Africa, where India first lost 0-2 in the ODI series of which he was not a part and then 0-1 in the two-Test rubber that followed.

“I am not allowed (by Cricket Board’s contract) to talk about past or future tours,” he said.

He also pointed out the importance of the Times Shield inter-offices tournament that he had played for his company in his growth as a player with a penchant for scoring double and triple hundreds.

“I was an under 19 cricketer when I joined Indian Oil. I have played a lot of Times Shield matches for IOC and I have learnt a lot from people like (former India opener) Wasim Jaffer (who was present) and others,” he said.