The crowd at Chennai’s Chidambaram stadium started to cheer when Pujara was out on a turning Jack Leach delivery. The wicket of Pujara meant that Virat Kohli would come to the crease to bat along with Rohit Sharma. The crowd wanted to see their captain bat and thus, a loud cheer was heard when Pujara got out.
Pujara got out for 21 when India’s score was 85. It was a mixed start for India as there were runs on the board, but the fall of wickets was a cause of concern. It was pretty unusual to see the home crowd cheer on the fall of an Indian wicket. Twitter fans also reacted to this strange reaction from the Chepauk crowd. See what they had to say:
Having seen all this, Virat Kohli’s aura and persona is unmatched with any other cricket player in the country or perhaps, in the world. The cheer by the Chennai crowd suggested how much the fans love to see their skipper bat. But the excitement of the fans was short-lived as Kohli got out on a rare duck to Moeen Ali’s flighted delivery. There was a deafening silence when Virat was out.
Although a bit bizzare, such incidents aren’t very new to the Indian grounds. This kind of cheering on Indian wickets also used to happen when Sachin Tendulkar was set to come out to bat.The craze has simply shifted from Sachin to Virat.
The second Test is different one, especially with crowds being allowed for the first time after the corona pandemic. "We're allowing 50% only, our total capacity when fully occupied is about 32000 odd, and we're only allowing 14000 inside. We're having about 17 entrances to the stadium, all of it will be manned by people who will check the temperature, give hand sanitizers, and make sure everybody is wearing a mask," TNCA Secretary RS Ramasammy said