Cheteshwar Pujara pays tribute to his captain

Nagpur: Indian captain Virat Kohli not only piles on Test hundreds but also scores them at a brisk pace making it difficult for most of his peers to match, concedes Cheteshwar Pujara, who himself is an epitome of consistency.

Asked why other players could not score at Kohli’s pace, Pujara admitted that matching his captain can be extremely difficult. “See, he (Kohli) is a kind of player who performs well in all the formats of the game and the way he started off, if there was some other batsmen, I don’t think they could have started in the same way. I think it’s his confidence and way he is batting, in last two to three years, it would have been difficult for any other batsman to score at such a strike rate,” Pujara said.

Pujara said that it was a “difficult pitch” not from batting perspective but certainly when it came to scoring runs. “Kolkata was different wicket altogether with a lot of assistance for fast bowlers especially in the first innings. Coming to this particular wicket, I think, it was difficult to score runs as this wicket was on the slower side. It was not easy to get boundaries and we had to rotate the strike,” he said.

“Whenever we got some opportunities, we tried playing some shots. But overall, it was a tough pitch, where you might not get out but it was also difficult to score runs,” Pujara added.

The hallmark of Pujara's game has been batting for long hours and he attributed it to better recovery and improved fitness.