New Delhi: Indian cricket team's senior batter Cheteshwar Pujara has been constantly facing heat for some time now as the senior Test specialist has not been able to score runs in the last few matches after scoring his last Test century in January 2019. Despite not being able to play big knocks, Pujara, most of the times has delivered when team needed him to do the most.
The star batter scored a fifty in the second Test match of the series against South Africa in Johannesburg. Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar is very impressed with Pujara's recent performance and went on to compare him to South African cricketing legend Hashim Amla.
South Africa chased down the 240 run target in Ind vs SA 2nd Test at Johannesburg to level the series 1-1. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, playing for their careers, did well with the bat as the duo scored half-centuries and made a century partnership.
"When I look at him, he reminds me of Hashim. Watching Hashim bat, you know there’s a sense of calm that everything is under control," Sunil Gavaskar said in a conversation with SuperSport.
"The ball could be doing things but there was that sense because even on pitches where the ball was turning, the way Hashim was batting in India, it was almost as if, ‘look, nothing’s happening’, and that’s the same thing with Cheteshwar Pujara," he added.
"It is a great, great blessing to have players of this temperament in your dressing room. (It may not be) necessarily just on the field but it’s a huge plus and I think having somebody with Cheteshwar Pujara’s temperament in the changing room must be absolutely terrific because in international cricket, there are several moments of tension where people would want to do this or that or the other. When you have somebody who’s going to think about it calmly and give you a measured opinion it makes a big difference," Gavaskar further said.