since his debut che's (as we fondly call him at bored) case is getting bit curious with his each outing...
his debut innings dismissal was strikingly unlucky...
in his second innings he impressed everybody with his temperament and stroke play and played a decisive knock which helped india whitewash australia...
and yesterday he received the delivery which was almost unplayable...
in between some freak or unlucky dismissals he has impressed pundits and fans alike and shown enough glimpses that he belongs to the highest arena... test cricket... without a decent score to show for the efforts...
mind you, though pujara's average at domestic level is very good, but it is also a factor that he would not have played anything resembling the quality of bowling at display that too overseas at as difficult a place as south africa where even many best at business have come short...
he still has second innings at newlands, capetown to post a decent score to wave off some doubts that might be creeping in the mind of those that matter most... selectors... but given the quality of bowling he will have to counter on the fourth innings at a wearing pitch of a series decider match for who the no.1 team in the world is... one can easily understand the pressure...
at one time he has shown enough promise... but at the same time his honeymoon period might be running off faster than one would like to believe... and given that we won't play tests for quite some time and there is world cup in between where players like raina, kohli, rohit sharma etc can stake claims with their good performances at the world stage...
how many more chances pujara will get if he were to fail again in the fourth innings at capetown...?
curious case of cheteshwar pujara...
shared by straight point on Wednesday, January 05, 2011
can india do bit differently at bangalore...?
shared by straight point on Thursday, October 07, 2010
after the thrilling finale of mohali test all eyes are now on bangalore test... and rightly so... the farce for a test series is still living up to its hype and fans from both sides can't wait for the next test to begin...
should india go for the kill and whitewash the series 2-0 to silence its critics or can selectors show some balls by distancing themselves from the hype of expectations and take stock of things...?
did i say stock of things...? what is there to take stock of... you say...?
well... you will know in a minute...
murali has shown in past that he has this un-flustered temperament about him... that is why he could fit in the side seamlessly in short notice in past... plus he is high on confidence now so i don't think there is much to dispute his selection as sehwag's partner...
ishant's place will be replaced by sreesanth and more than his bowling we might miss him for his rear-guard play when he bats... which tells us a lot about the kind of bowling ishant is dishing apart from his consistent over-stepping problem that can make even dilhara fernando proud...
india has nothing to lose as far as this series goes... even if they lose the next test... we will retain the border-gavaskar trophy... as well as the no.1 status... but being bit more proactive we can still gain something out of bangalore tests... in real sense...
this leaves us only one place where i would like selectors to use their discretion and look for future at the same time...
however much one wants to see vvs bat after mohali test... it will be nothing short of a risk india could ill afford given the number of tests we are going to play in near future...
so i would give vvs the precautionary rest... and replace him with cheteshwar pujara and play him at no.3 with dravid taking the spot vacated by vvs laxman...
the reason being... dhoni is not in greatest of form these days... his test batting is regressing by each outing... so having che and raina followed by dhoni will be bit of a risk and i think dravid's experience will be best used there...
of whatever little i saw of che in field... he appears to be a good close-in fielder... stays low till the last possible moment... no hurried movements... and more importantly looks relaxed... no wonder he took a very good catch fielding there... plus he is coming at the back of mountain of runs on every platform he has been given the opportunity to perform... so its time he is given the nod to see what he brings in to the table...
as i said... india has nothing to lose... not the series... not the border-gavasker trophy... not even the no.1 position... on the other hand we can test how murali, sreesanth (who is making bit of comeback in test team) and of course che cope with the pressure when oz will be trying their best to make a comeback in the series...
to me its another god send opportunity (after they missed on the bangladesh tour) with a win-win situation for us as well as che & co. and if we can use this opportunity to provide them glorified net-practice against exhausted australia team i think we must enchash it... until unless we want to have bragging rights on them for a while and lose focus on the impending transition...
what you would be doing if you were cheteshwar pujara...?
shared by straight point on Monday, September 20, 2010
selectors are not going to wait till BPXI game... they will be meeting today to select the test team for the home series against australia...
so another potential selection awaits CHE'teshwar pujara...
how will the day end for him...?
will he be looking forward to the BPXI game to justify the faith selectors would show on him by selecting him...? or will he look at that game to show that there is no cure for the myopia selectors are suffering from...?
in my team CHE would have made it far ahead of rohit sharmas, suresh rainas but that is my team... in team india... he will have to wait till endless chances would be bestowed on players like yuvraj... rohit sharmas to make it certain that there is no test cricket in them...or drag seniors like dravid, sachin and laxman till there is no test cricket left in them...
but then will pujara be able to hold the forte without assurance of performance appreciation coming for that long or will he let the disappointment of consistent ignorance without explanation eat his trusted companions like talent... temperament... that have kept him going till now...
we shall see in not so distant future...
update:
guess who said this...
but i am not losing on hope and my gut feeling is that he will be selected (if not play) for oz home series...
finally selectors could not afford to keep him out... cheteshwar pujara has finally made it to team india... lets see when he breaks into final xi...
the team:
MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Sreesanth and Amit Mishra
cheeka on CHE...
shared by straight point on Saturday, July 03, 2010
inspired by this tweet of homer... i decided somebody has to talk about our beloved but almost conspiratorially ignored CHE... the player nobody in power circle talks about despite consistently putting up solid numbers at every available opportunity, well almost, and you will know why in due course...
so i had a chat with cheeka... kris srikkanth... the chief selector of india... about CHE... the full transcript of the chat is reproduced verbatim at bored... the result is anything but...
okay... don't let me color your opinion... decide for yourself...
crashed...
shared by straight point on Thursday, April 16, 2009
before he could take off...
news is that CHE, cheteshwar pujara, is ruled out for six months coz of knee injury...
i am struggling to find words to express how am feeling right now...
but i know for sure that i felt the same pain when i heard that manoj tiwary is returning home after he dislocated his shoulder...diving to stop a ball in a practice session...on the eve of his international debut...
look where he is now...no where in the radar of selectors...
i hope and wish that pujara find some strength to take this in his stride and won't let the disappointment to take over his focus from the game...
CHE...i am with you...BCC! is with you...wishing you speedy recovery...
you know its time...
shared by straight point on Tuesday, April 14, 2009
when selectors discuss rohits on days when you score triples...
when stupendous effort of taking your team, saurasthra, to semi-finals...
coming at 3/13...chasing 325 on last day of match...scoring unbeaten ton...is seen not sufficient...
you know its time for much needed makeover...
its time to ask some tough questions...
introducing 'CHE'...
of indian cricket...
cheteshwar pujara
coming soon to a tv near you...
keep a watch...
