Cheteshwar Pujara hopeful of returning to the IPL
Cheteshwar Pujara, India’s Test veteran, has expressed his desire to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The 33-year-old has registered himself in the auction quite a few times but has gone unsold despite setting low base prices. He last played in the cash-rich league back in 2014, representing the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), now captained by KL Rahul.
His last IPL match was against the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium where he scored an 18-ball 19 before getting out to Corey Anderson. In the meantime, despite not playing in the previous six seasons, Pujara hasn’t given up the ghost and his hopes of taking part in the popular T20 league hasn’t died just yet.
Cheteshwar Pujara hopeful
“Definitely want to be part of the IPL. Given an opportunity, I am confident I’ll be able to do well,” Pujara was quoted as saying in NDTV. In 30 IPL matches, Pujara has 390 runs at an average and strike-rate of 20.53 and 99.74 respectively.
He started his career while playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2010 after which he moved to the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). In the Challengers, he played for three seasons from 2011 to 2013. In 2014, the Rajkot-born joined KXIP, who released him after one season itself. He hasn’t found a buyer ever since then.
Pujara, in a recent interview, also said that Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill’s attacking style of play helps him play his natural game.
“Both of them are attacking players. That does help me in some way. If another partner is trying to take the bowler on, it allows me to play my natural game. I have batted with Viru pajji (Sehwag) also, where he would have already put the opposition under pressure with his batting. That’s a great way to build a partnership,” he stated.
Pujara has been a bedrock of India’s Test batting, scoring 6,111 runs from 81 matches at an average of 47.74. He was recently a part of the national Test team, which retained the Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, winning the four-match series 2-1.
