Difficult for others to score at Virat’s strike rate: Pujara

By Paritosh Pramanik
NAGPUR, Nov 26

VIRAT Kohli, the Indian captain is in the zone. He is breaking records at will. On Sunday, Kohli hit his fifth double century in 16 months. Team-mate Cheteshwar Pujara praised his captain saying Virat is a player who can perform well in all formats of the game.
“He is a kind of player who performs well in all formats of the game. The way he started off, if there was some other batsmen, I don’t think they could have started in the same way.
“I think, it’s his confidence and way he is batting, in last two-three years, it would have been difficult for any other batsman to score with such strike rate,” Pujara said after the day’s play.
Pujara himself scored a sublime 143 and had two huge partnerships, first with Murali Vijay (209) and then with Kohli (183) to floor the Sri Lankans. When asked to assess his hundred in context of his half century he scored in the first Test at Kolkata, Pujara said both the tracks were different.
“Kolkata was a different wicket altogether with lot of assistance for the fast bowlers especially in the first innings. Coming to this particular wicket, I think, it was difficult to score runs as this wicket was on the slower side. It wasn’t easy to get boundaries and we had to rotate the strike, whenever we got some opportunities, we tried playing some shots. But overall, it was a tough pitch, where you might not get out but it was also difficult to score runs.”
Pujara said the ball had started turning and Indian spinners would come in play on the morrow.
“I think, the ball has started turning and we are hoping Day 4, spinners will come into play and at the same time, there is variable bounce for fast bowlers, Ishant and Umesh will also come into play.”
Saying that they had to run hard to score singles, Pujara said he had worked hard on his fitness in last two years, which helped him a lot.
“I think last one and half to two years, I have been working hard on my fitness and luckily there has not been any injuries, and injuries are something I have gone through and that is in past,” Pujara said.
On playing in South Africa on pacy and bouncy tracks, Pujara said he has the experience of playing in the South African conditions.
“I have enough experience of playing in South African conditions. I have been there in 2010 and then again in 2013, so experience will definitely help.”
Talking about the time for preparation for the SA series, Pujara felt the Test players would get enough time to prepare.
“Those we who are part of Test team will have enough time to prepare for SA series. First Test starts on Jan 5, before that there’s plenty of time to prepare. Personally, County experience and past SA experience will certainly help because I have improved my technique specially playing in overseas conditions.”
On the lack of warm–up games Pujara said, “As far as practice games are concerned, I should not be the one commenting. 
“It also depends on schedule and how BCCI plans the tour. But, going there little bit early – a week or 10 days early, and then practicing on those pitches are important.”