Pujara, what a performance!

[coffee_rules]

Can't believe he was dropped in the first test in Eng to get Dhawan in. He should do a middle finger salute towards Kohli and Shastri at every milestone. My favorite player in the team followed by Bumrah. Feel sad every time he fails.

[Peace]

all about Quality = pujara 

 

last series vk scored 692 (4 test) in oz now Pujara reaches 450* plus

[neel roy]

2 hours ago, rtmohanlal said:

brilliant  performance by Pujara.... how things can change some time!!!!!!.... Never rated him highly .Till the start of this series he had the most pathetic record in SENA.His county performance before ENG series and his silly LKG kid  like game awareness during the initial phases of the ENG series  provided no indication what so ever  of this turn around. So kudos to him for turning it around and hope he

continues to be  that bridge between  openers & middle order batsmen  for at least 4 more years( hope he does not turn out to be  another Murali Vijay) for the sake of the team.

Yeah the way he got run out in lords  and again was fearing for his career. What a turnaround just by leaving balls and sticking to crease

[rtmohanlal]

9 minutes ago, neel roy said:

Yeah the way he got run out in lords  and again was fearing for his career. What a turnaround just by leaving balls and sticking to crease

On the other hand Rahane & Vijay

[mishra]

28 minutes ago, neel roy said:

Yeah the way he got run out in lords  and again was fearing for his career. What a turnaround just by leaving balls and sticking to crease

Leaving the ball is one of the hardest thing to do. 

It requires yiu to understand where the offstump is. Kohli tried to leave today. Aussies got him on leg side.

 

If we do not go into aussie batting side, CHepu is currently facing worlds best bowling attack and has conquered it.

 

Those who think otherwise( for once forget Lyon) the pace trio is so good, that they have managed to exploit Worlds best bat Kohli on both offside and Legside. They dont bowl Kohli as if he is the best bat. They bowl to Kohli thinking they can get him

Edited January 3, 2019 by mishra

[Chandan]

https://goo.gl/2WaQmr

 

The summer of Pujara: Test specialist delivers again for India

By Malcolm Knox

3 January 2019 — 7:23pm

 

 

The Sydney Test match was only nine balls old when Cheteshwar Pujara was in the middle, once again unprotected by his openers. In Adelaide he was in after 12 balls; in Perth, 18 and four. Seldom had he enjoyed the luxury of watching some cricket.

He doesn’t seem to mind batting, though. Pujara doesn’t start an innings so much as book himself in. Five hours later when he passed his century, Nathan Lyon asked him, "aren’t you bored yet?"The answer was non-verbal: another hour, 30 more runs, not out overnight, an early start Thursday morning. No, not bored yet.

This summer of Pujara is now grooved into habit. First, he lined up his bat like a fishing rod, choking down on the grip, ready to take the short handle to Australia’s bowlers. The merits of this innings might be understated because Pujara was able to negate the menace, but when he began, this looked like four-down-by-lunch kind of morning.

Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc had been unlucky to get KL Rahul out just the once in his five minutes against the new ball. The pitch had bounce and the bowling was fast. You would have called Hazlewood’s delivery to Rahul unplayable – fourth stump, kicking off a length – until you saw Pujara come out and deal with such deliveries as if they were throwdowns.

Starc and Hazlewood hurled down many of what to ordinary batsmen would have been wicket balls, and Pujara let them all go; a High Court judge of length. When he had to defend, his bat reverberated off the ball, yielding to its force as if batting were a form of judo.

Lyon came on just before lunch. Pujara had been ably supported by Mayank Agarwal, a keen student who is learning how to play short-pitched bowling as he goes. But Pujara versus Lyon has been a highlight of the series. For such a patient batsman, his piano legs needing a specialist removalist to get him out of his stance, Pujara has the lightest and quickest feet of any batsman in world cricket except maybe Steve Smith. That he uses his feet against spin mainly for defensive purposes is neither here nor there.

Pujara’s quickness has baffled and frustrated Lyon, whose pace usually forbids such liberties. Unable to toss the ball up, Lyon tried to push Pujara back, whereupon the ball could be tucked away for a single behind those massive haunches.

Agarwal finally holed out after an excellent 77, and Pujara was joined by Virat Kohli. In Kersi Meher-Homji’s new chronicle of the Indian-Australian rivalry, From Bradman to Kohli, is a surprising statistic. Even before this series, Pujara had a higher average against Australia than either Kohli or Sachin Tendulkar. Most of those runs had come in India, and indeed Pujara had been dropped for the Sydney Test match four years ago. He has also been dropped in South Africa and, six months ago, was dropped in England. With some characters, the cruel-to-be-kind philosophy of selection seems to pay off.

 

The Australians tried their repertoire of bowling plans. When they pitched up, Pujara clipped them wide of mid-on. They resorted again to bumpers, which he took on the helmet and on the shoulder. Pujara’s front side has been hit more than any other human part this summer. That might be a statistical certainty, given the number of balls he has faced, but it is also a benchmark of his courage. He’s a boxer who can take a punch.

Amid all this, he was scoring more fluently than in his Adelaide or Melbourne centuries, even permitting himself a little Kohli arabesque of the wrists after an on-drive and a flamboyant swish at Starc. He outscored and outperformed his captain. Second banana no longer, he helped himself into the gifts served up by a nervous Marnus Labuschagne.

 

Then Starc came around the wicket. Pujara clipped the first ball off his pads and cut the second, two boundaries that gave the rope more of a clap than a kiss. To raise his hundred, he turned Starc off his hip for another four. Lyon, on the boundary, thought he might stop it but couldn’t. Yet again, Pujara had been underestimated.

He was in full spate now, allowing himself an exuberant celebratory air-uppercut, letting himself go like the proverbial extroverted mathematician. (How can you tell an extroverted mathematician? He dares to look at your feet while talking to you.) Pujara was having Pujara-style fun.

 

So 2019 began as 2018 had ended, with a Pujara hundred. Beneath all this is a pressing question. Will Australia ever produce another batsman like this, with neither the ambition nor the aptitude to score 30 off eight balls for the Somewhere Whatsits in the Something T20 League? Will India? Are we seeing a revival of a dying art, or one of the last of its kind? It’s a shock that we’re even asking. Look at the evidence: a Test batsman, a jack of one trade, has delivered India the main prize.

 

----------------------------------------------

Bored? That's not in Pujara's dictionary.

 

Edited January 3, 2019 by Chandan

[rkt.india]

Quote

In Kersi Meher-Homji’s new chronicle of the Indian-Australian rivalry, From Bradman to Kohli, is a surprising statistic. Even before this series, Pujara had a higher average against Australia than either Kohli or Sachin Tendulkar. Most of those runs had come in India, and indeed Pujara had been dropped for the Sydney Test match four years ago. He has also been dropped in South Africa and, six months ago, was dropped in England. With some characters, the cruel-to-be-kind philosophy of selection seems to pay off.

 

[Chandan]

On 12/10/2018 at 11:22 PM, King Tendulkar said:

Well done skipper fpr bringing best out of him, all down to Kohli.  Onaly applying same logic how kohli blamed when batsman dont do well, so cant have it both ways wrist slitters

 

On 12/29/2018 at 8:56 PM, King Tendulkar said:

It took him a looooong time but he finally has started to deliver ovserseas.  Took many years and many trips mind

 

As in SA series he was poor again, rightly dropped in engkand and frankly I and many were done with him.  But then came back and rest his history

 

So what chnaged?

 

Its simple .  More positive and willing to play slighlty more shots in ceratin areas.  In SA i was pulling my hair out with him again, as we wanted him to be our rock but he took it to far overseas once again.  Like a menatal block.  In SA he had one area were willing to score, leg side flick, that was it.  He recieved many many proper half volleys as he drew the bowlers in to it but blocked them, not length ball but juiciest half volleys which he blocked.  Also got many short and wide balls (almost long hops) which again his length of stay drew bowlers to do and left them.  So occupied crease yes but only one scoring area flick ogf leg, eventulaly good ball came and out!

 

In eng he changed after being dropped.  Suddenly and still doing now.  Any genuine half volleys he now punches them away for runs and now any short balls cuts.  Still blocks hell out of it but added 2 scoring areas more to his flick and he is now delivering.

 

Slightly more positive approach has seen him deliver.  Long may it continue

An article for you:

https://goo.gl/259PhE

 

Cheteshwar Pujara – A Batsman Transformed?

January 3, 2019/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Ben Jones

CricViz analyst Ben Jones assesses whether the success of India’s No.3 is due to a technical change, or just their class shining through.

Edgbaston, 2018. It’s not quite as evocative as the date which preceded it by 13 years, but for Indian cricket, it could come to be as prestigious a moment.

On the 1st of August, India dropped Cheteshwar Pujara.

They opted to pick KL Rahul, the swaggering talent of half-fulfilled wonder, ahead of their hard-knock proven No.3. It was a staggering decision, one that left the press box and the stands aghast. One senior journalist in the room, when the decision was announced, exclaimed “where the **** is Pujara?”. It was a sentiment shared by many. Even now, it feels like a bizarre decision, and that may have cost India that Test. They lost it by 31 runs. Rahul made 17 runs in the match.

Yet if you proffer this opinion, that the decision to drop Pujara was a catastrophic error, you will be met with resistance from many who insist that the dropping was the best thing to ever happen to him. They insist that he changed his technique as a result of the dropping, altering the issue that had prevented him from completely dominating away from home in the way he had in India.

It’s fair to offer this. Since being dropped, and then subsequently returning for the following Test at Lord’s, Pujara has faced 2,035 deliveries, more than any other batsman in the world. He’s faced more deliveries and made his runs at a better average than his captain.He has become a colossus, ascending to a level others have been unable to match.

So, it feels appropriate to ask the question: has Pujara actually changed anything?

The first thing to isolate is that the problem for Pujara, an untrusted tourist, was that people didn’t think he could play the moving ball away from home. Whilst this isn’t completely borne out in the data, the numbers do point towards a clear issues against pace – specifically, an issue against good length deliveries from seamers.

This feels so incongruous, considering the caricature of Pujara. He is a wall, a Dravidian descendant who can bat for days – surely his resistance can’t be undone by the most basic of things, the ball on an awkward length? How can a man so solid average less than the 20.79 that top seven batsmen have averaged against those deliveries in the last two years? Yet the data suggests that, despite our impressions, this has been a flaw.

Equally, since the the Birmingham rejection, that record has altered significantly. His career average against pace in SENA countries (28.89) has risen to 37.33. It’s not huge, but it’s allowed him to dominate.

He has improved against all lengths, more solid in all areas, but most crucially he’s improved against those good length balls.

There are a number of things one could do to counter this kind of issue. You could bat more or less out of your crease, in the manner of Virat Kohli. The Indian captain has taken to striking the ball on average 2.2m away from his stumps during this series, whilst others like Ajinkya Rahane have opted to make the most of their back foot strength and sit deep. However, Pujara appears to have done neither.

An alternative option is that he’s playing the ball into different areas. If the batsman is looking to score in alternative areas of the field, and is succeeding, then that points to a change in technique. Across his career, Pujara has typically been heavy scoring behind square. That trademark cut, underrated in its aesthetic beauty and its ability to make you catch your breath, allows him to batter the seamers through backward point.

If we compare that to how Pujara has gone in these last two away series, has that changed?

Barely. These are minor alterations, the sort of small changes that are the result of an edged four here, a skewed drive there. Nothing has changed here. Pujara is still Pujara.

So if the issue in the South Africa series – the one that preceded being dropped – was the way he played pace, and he hasn’t changed when or where he’s hitting the ball, then how has he changed his intent? 
In South Africa, he averaged a jot under 20, and struggled against the marauding seamers, let loose on hard, spitting pitches, but how did he respond? Has he run scared? Has he come out all guns blazing?

Below is Pujara’s batting record in SENA countries, across his career.

Since being recalled Pujara has attacked balls on his stumps less and attacked balls outside off stump more. He has, generally, been very aggressive off his pads, but cautious outside off stump, but this pattern has changed in that last six months. It is a tweak, an alteration in intent which hasn’t seen him score more heavily through off (as we’ve seen), but an alteration nonetheless.

So what we’re seeing here is a man who has slightly increased his intent in one area, whilst slightly decreasing his intent in another. It is a man who has changed his modus operandi marginally, but has certainly not thrown his previous game away. This is unequivocally not a man transformed.

And so, it’s fair to push back. Pujara has not become a different player since being removed from the side in Birmingham – he has simply regressed to the mean.

This is a phrase that, for better or for worse, has become associated with analytics. Leave things be, we say, and everything will revert to the norm. Leave Stuart Broad in the Test side, and he will take wickets. Keep Jose Mourinho, and he will win games. It is an instinctively and emotionally difficult argument to take, and it is easy to throw it back in the faces of those who throw it in yours. But is is valid, and it is important.

Because it’s simply a new version of an old idea. “Form is temporary, class is permanent”. Pujara will go to bed tonight with a Test batting average of 51.07. Of those to play 20 Tests in their career – the standard, accepted line where a sample becomes reasonable – just 32 men in history have managed to better Pujara’s record. Here before our eyes is a great of the game, a player of such skill and substance that only a generous handful of those before him could compete.

Yet he isn’t trusted. Perhaps this is an aesthetic issue, though I’ve made my personal position clear. Perhaps it is a broader issue, his status as a man untethered to an IPL franchise leaving him with fewer hardcore supporters than others in his homeland. Perhaps it’s simply that, aware of the crop of wonderful players at their disposal, India’s selectors erred on the side of youth and aggression.

But history will suggest that their decision was wrong. If Pujara plays in Birmingham, India may win that Test. They may remain faithful to a victorious side, and decide against including Kuldeep on the greentop at Lord’s. They may ultimately defeat an England side strong in spirit but low on confidence, and then arrive in Australia not with a point to prove, but with a supremacy to affirm. The history of Indian cricket could well have been oh so different.

Yet ultimately, this is just another microcosm. Somewhere in the ether. Pujara is a great, a great who will transcend any of these series, and anybody who doesn’t acknowledge this is wrong. And yet, as Day One turns into Day Two across the harbour in this famous city, India are content. They have assumed a dominant position in their most important Test of the 21st century, their overnight WinViz an assured 66%. At this most crucial of moments, they are in control of their destiny. For that, they can thanks Chesteshwar Pujara: unassuming, unchanged, immoveable.

Ben Jones is an analyst at CricViz.

 

 

[mishra]

56 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

 

Yes, Dropping Pujara was slap on wrist by Kohli and Bevada.  His place was allways assured in test side They are the ones who actually deserve full credit because Pujara was like a class topper who wasn’t working to his potential due to lack of competetion.

Who is this Chewtiya writter?

[ravishingravi]

9 hours ago, rkt.india said:

Pujara did zilch in county cricket succeeded in tests. Vijay who did well in county flopped big time in tests.

Hé doesn’t have to succeed in county cricket. Failure in tough conditions and cricket will teach more than success in pyjama cricket. 

[mishra]

6 minutes ago, ravishingravi said:

Hé doesn’t have to succeed in county cricket. Failure in tough conditions and cricket will teach more than success in pyjama cricket. 

No one gives 100% in County. He needed to learn stuff, and  he learned. He wont take a body blow at 145k + for any damn County. Simple as that.

Problem is, how can selectors not see the quality when we have players who fall like pack of cards

Edited January 3, 2019 by mishra

[gattaca]

9 hours ago, rkt.india said:

Pujara did zilch in county cricket succeeded in tests. Vijay who did well in county flopped big time in tests.

 They played in different time periods. Pujara played when the pitches whihc were really tough and he couldnt score much. Murali vijay joined much later after our tour was over and it was dry and he score lot of runs. So conditions do matter.

Edited January 3, 2019 by gattaca

[mishra]

^ Actually Pujara played in dry condition. Vijay played in proper English coditions.

[vvvslaxman]

English media is going gaga over Pujara as he is banging their nemesis :)

[vvvslaxman]

1 hour ago, gattaca said:

 They played in different time periods. Pujara played when the pitches whihc were really tough and he couldnt score much. Murali vijay joined much later after our tour was over and it was dry and he score lot of runs. So conditions do matter.

M Vijay is a good batsman regardless. But he is extremely low in confidence. Combination of several things have virtually shut his career down. Not like we don't have openers. We have several. Panchal, Shaw, Agarwal.

[prudent_kreeda]

1 hour ago, mishra said:

No one gives 100% in County. He needed to learn stuff, and  he learned. He wont take a body blow at 145k + for any damn County. Simple as that.

Problem is, how can selectors not see the quality when we have players who fall like pack of cards

     Selectots never dropped him. ITS TM which dod not inclide him eleven. Who should be blamed ?

[mishra]

40 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

English media is going gaga over Pujara as he is banging their nemesis :)

Yes, Thwy are loving it. Every bit of it.

[mishra]

20 minutes ago, prudent_kreeda said:

     Selectots never dropped him. ITS TM which dod not inclide him eleven. Who should be blamed ?

Yes, If you want me to be specific then its Bunty Kohli nexus. There is no TM. 

[vvvslaxman]

 

 

[vvvslaxman]