Out for 1 but Pujara's sportsmanship earns him accolades

Barring a brief visit to India for the one-off Test match against Afghanistan, Cheteshwar Pujara has spent almost four months in England, representing Yorkshire in the County Championship. To what extent it will help him in the Test series can be scrutinised later but his four-month-long stay in England has left a positive influence in Pujara none the less, so much that he preferred to walk while batting on 1 when the umpire had adjudged him not out.

Barring a brief visit to India for the one-off Test match against Afghanistan, Cheteshwar Pujara has spent almost four months in England, representing Yorkshire in the County Championship. To what extent it will help him in the Test series can be scrutinised later but his four-month-long stay in England has left a positive influence in Pujara none the less, so much that he preferred to walk while batting on 1 when the umpire had adjudged him not out.

Pujara’s act of sportsmanship showed him good light ahead of the five-match Test series against England starting on August 1. The incident occurred during India’s only warm-up match against Essex.

Coming into bat after Dhawan had departed for a golden duck, Pujara got a snorter of a delivery very early into his innings from Matt Coles, which at first sight looked to have kissed off his thigh pads. Seeing the Essex fielders’ appeal falling on deaf ears, Pujara decided to walk, giving a prime example of the spirit of the game.

📽️ Second wicket of the day for Coles, as Pujara is caught behind by Foster#ESSvIND pic.twitter.com/wkfz3FfxmP

— Essex Cricket (@EssexCricket) July 25, 2018

To be fair to the umpire, there was no way he could have judged whether Pujara had really nicked it or not. Standing at the non-striker’s end, Murali Vijay too seemed surprised seeing Pujara walk off and he even pointed to the thighs indicating that the ball might have brushed off the thigh pads.

India were bowled out for 395, batting first. Dinesh Karthik (82), Virat Kohli (68), KL Rahul (58) and Murali Vijay (53) struck impressive half-centuries.