Difference Between India Drawing And Losing The Sydney Test Was Pujara: Cummins To Dinesh Karthik

Cheteshwar Pujara has been subject to a lot of criticism for his strike rate in test matches and the lack of runs he is scoring lately. However, Indian cricketer-cum-commentator Dinesh Karthik has come out in support of Pujara saying no one should bother him as long as he is winning matches for the team. 

“I feel this strike rate is absolute nonsense. If you take the number of Test matches that have gotten over in four days – it is about 80-82%. So, why to bother about strike rate, let him play at whatever strike rate he wants to play, as long as he can win Test matches for India,” Karthik said while speaking to star sports on the eve of the WTC Final. 

“Now, Pujara, why hasn’t he scored runs? You have to understand if you take the last match, he was playing against ranked turners (against England back home), where the team was finding it hard to score 200 runs, and to expect Pujara to score a 100 is unfair.”

Karthik, who plays for Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) in IPL, recollected his teammate Pat Cummins saying that it was the Pujara who was the difference between India drawing and losing the Sydney test match. 

“We have played under tough conditions… If you take that Sydney Test match, the number of blows that he (Pujara) just took. Pat Cummins (KKR teammate) was talking to me about that in the IPL – saying the difference between India drawing the Test match and losing it was one man, Cheteshwar Pujara. The amount of time that he batted, he was giving him body blows,” Cummins recollected to Karthik.

“If you had put any of the other Indian batsmen at that stage of the day, early on when there is probably a little bit of juice, they would have struggled. There was a good chance we would have capitulated on that game. For us to not cross that hurdle, to get to Brisbane unscathed, the reason was Pujara in a big way,” said Karthik who will be commenting on the WTC final match.