Pujara's the bigger wicket: Hazlewood

The entire Australia and their media may be going nuts over Virat Kohli but Josh Hazlewood termed Cheteshwar Pujara as a bigger wicket than the Indian skipper.

"No definitely not,” said Hazlewood when asked if there’s been too much focus on Kohli. “I probably see Pujara as the big wicket as far as when I'm bowling, the glue that holds them (India) together. I think he has batted the most balls this series and scored nearly the most runs. I see him as a big wicket and (Ajinkya) Rahane as well. So, the Nos. 3, 4, 5 as the key wickets and we see it a bit unstable in the other parts of the order. Certainly, not all the focus is on Virat,” he insisted.

Pujara has scored 225 runs in the four innings so far at an average of 55.50 while Kohli is behind him with 177 runs at an average of 44.25. Barring a masterpiece of a century in the first innings here, Australia have managed to keep the right-hander to three low scores and Hazlewood felt their plans against him are coming off well.  

"We've obviously got our plans and we feel if we can do those plans the majority of the time, then we can get his wicket,” he said. “We definitely dry the runs up and I think the way Nathan (Lyon) is bowling especially, both sides of the bat this Test, to all their batters he's been phenomenal. But I think when we stray from that plan, he's good enough to score the runs. It's about just depending on those plans we've talked about and come prepared and put them into action.”