Adelaide: It took Cheteshwar Pujara 148 balls to get his first boundary. However, not for once did Cheteshwar Pujara feel that he batted too slowly during the opening day’s play against Australia in the first pink ball Test here Thursday. Pujara scored a sedate 43 off 160 balls in India’s 233 for six at stumps on day one. He feels that a first innings total of 350 would be very handy for the visitors.
Asked if he felt that he could have paced his innings better, the Saurashtra man had an emphatic ‘no’ for an answer. “Not at all. We were in a very good position in the first two sessions,” said Pujara, defending the 41 scored by the team in the first session and 66 runs that were scored in the second.
“We needed to make sure that we don’t lose wickets when the ball is swinging. It was a great day of Test cricket and there are no regrets at all about the strategy. We couldn’t have lost more wickets playing shots and getting bowled out in a day,” Pujara asserted.
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The senior India batsman also defended his batting style on the day as the wicket wasn’t conducive for stroke-play. “Test cricket needs patience. If the wicket is flat, then you can be aggressive but when it’s helping the bowlers, you can’t play a lot of shots,” Pujara pointed out.
“In overseas conditions, you don’t want a total of less than 200 runs (in first innings). In the first two sessions, the bowlers are fresh and the pitch is fresh,” he added.
Pujara conceded that skipper Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane’s dismissal will surely provide a ‘little bit of advantage’ to Australia
Pujara was also praise for off-spinner Nathan Lyon, the bowler who dismissed him. “He gets a lot of revs (revolutions) on the ball. His line and length have really improved. He likes taking the challenge and while facing him, you also need to be prepared to face that challenge,” Pujara said.