Virat Kohli Breaks His Silence On Cheteshwar Pujara’s Poor Form: India’s Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara has been struggling with his form following the Australia tour. In the four-match Test series against England at home, Pujara only managed to score 133 runs at an average of 22.17. While he isn’t new to criticism or debates about his strike rate or ‘lack of intent’, however, this time the heat is on Pujara like never before.
Infact, this time the pressure is immense on him as India lost the most crucial Test match, the World Test Championship finale at the hands of New Zealand by 8 wickets. He failed again in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand, managing scores of 8 and 15 in both innings.
Ahead of the 5-match Test series, while addressing a pre-match virtual presser on Tuesday, Virat Kohli reacted strongly to the criticism received by Pujara. Virat Kohli said that the critics must leave Pujara alone as he strongly believes that it is up to individuals to figure out the ‘drawbacks’ in their game.
Kohli came to Pujara’s defense of India’s no.3 batsman. He said: “It’s been going on for a while and I honestly feel a player of his calibre and experience should be left alone and it should be absolutely with the individual to figure out what are the drawbacks in his game,”
Further, the skipper said that players at this level are aware of the responsibilities and such undue criticism doesn’t bother the players, least of all Cheteshwar Pujara. He said:
“Similarly with me or any other player in this team, we are very aware of the things we need to do for the benefit of the team. I can from outside say criticism is unnecessary but I know for a fact that Pujara doesn’t care and criticism is as relevant as you want it to be.“
He added:
“People can say what they want to say on the outside and those are just words at the end of the day. If you feel they mean no value to you, you just carry on, walking on your path,”
Meanwhile, it would be interesting to see if Pujara is able to make a comeback in the upcoming series.
