Would not call my performance in New Zealand a bad one, states Cheteshwar Pujara

India’s No.3 in Tests Pujara, who recently was a part of the Ranji Trophy winning Saurashtra team, believes that people always expect big knocks from him. However, in India’s recent 0-2 loss against New Zealand, Pujara’s numbers were rather disappointing. In fact, none of the Indian batters had a good time down there. The best he managed was a 54 in the second Test, in Christchurch. Pujara amassed five half centuries this season, including the one in New Zealand, however, without a hundred.

"People expect big knocks from me. I always challenge myself to score a 100 but to average close to 50 in Tests means you are scoring a half-century almost every second innings. My standards are always high and I am not satisfied with the season that I had but I would not call it a bad one at all," Pujara was quoted as saying by TOI. 

Pujara’s batting time, however much criticised, is one of the things that make him a great batsman. But youngsters these days are more inspired by the T20 format. Pujara, though, believes that Test cricket is the real format. However, he feels there’s nothing wrong in being more inclined towards shorter formats.

"I don't think it is on the decline (art of batting time). There is value for it. Maybe the youngsters are not inclined towards this format. It is a fact that there are more games in white-ball cricket. A youngster would want to play shorter formats because it is financially better,” he added.

"There is nothing wrong with that but they should understand that real cricket is Test cricket and you will be judged only on the performances in the five-day game."