Veteran India batter Cheteshwar Pujara is hoping to make a comeback in the Indian team after smashing two centuries for Sussex in the ongoing Royal London One-Day Cup.
Pujara, who is 35 years old, gave an outstanding effort against Somerset, scoring an astounding 117 runs without a loss. He had previously scored an unbeaten 106 from 119 balls against Northamptonshire. He has scored 302 runs in four games, placing him second in the competition in terms of run totals. His amazing 151 average speaks for itself.
Nevertheless, Cheteshwar Pujara was not included in India’s two-match Test series against the West Indies despite his recent outstanding performance. This choice was made in response to several dismal national team performances. He could only muster scores of 14 and 27 in the World Test Championship (WTC) championship match against Australia at The Oval. Unfortunately, his efforts were insufficient to stop the squad led by Rohit Sharma from suffering a 209-run defeat.
“Yeah, it’s nice to score runs. Look, I always try and control the things which I can and it’s always about getting as many runs as possible in whatever games I play. I am still in the scheme of things (for India), so I hope that the moment I start scoring runs in first-class games, I’ll be back into the team, but I’ll just try and be in the present, try and take one game at a time,” Pujara told on Sussex’s YouTube channel.
The 35-year-old Pujara is hopeful that he might get a spot in India’s next away series against South Africa later in 2023.
“We are not going to play any more Test matches in the next two-three months’ time. The next Test series is in South Africa in December so there is a long way to go, but I’ll try and focus on the next few games and then try and move into the Championships because we have a few important Championships games coming up in September. We have a chance to qualify and that’s the prime focus for us,” he added.
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