India’s middle order got off to a strong start against Australia’s mammoth total of 480 runs in the ongoing cricket test series. Openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill played well, but Sharma was dismissed for 35 runs. However, Gill continued to perform and reached his second Test century, the first on home soil for the 23-year-old player.
Cheteshwar Pujara, who spent a lot of time in the middle with Gill, praised the young cricketer for his patience while batting and for his defensive play against spinners and aggressive play against pacers. “He always likes to play his shots. I try and play my natural game. I try and communicate what the bowlers are trying to do. Apart from that, he showed a lot of patience yesterday. He is not someone who will keep defending against the spinners. But if you look at his strike rate against spinners, he was quite defensive. He was trying to take the fast bowlers on. Whenever there was a loose ball, he tried to punish it,” said Pujara.
The veteran batter started well but was dismissed by Todd Murphy when he was batting at 42. Nevertheless, Pujara praised the pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium and stated that playing on such pitches was essential for the batting unit to gain confidence and score big runs.
“It’s been a long time to be honest. It’s good to see such wickets because sometimes, as a batting unit, you need to play on such pitches to gain confidence to spend some time in the crease and score big runs,” Pujara added.
