Cheteshwar Pujara showed no signs of burnout. “Most of us have been playing some cricket or the other. All of us are young and we enjoy playing,” he told a press conference at the Rajiv Gandhi international stadium, here on Monday evening. The Indian team had a training session in the run-up to its one-off Test against Bangladesh, which begins from Thursday.
“We cannot take them lightly,” answered the prolific run-getter when asked if the contest would be between Bangladesh’s spin and India’s batting. “But at the same time, we played very good cricket in 2016. So probably we would stick to the same thing. We are the No. 1 team in the world at the moment. We would like to maintain that,” the Rajkot resident said.
Given the similarity in surfaces across the sub-continent, would either of the teams have an advantage or disadvantage playing here? “I think it will be a fair contest. Because, when we tour Bangladesh we have a similar experience as when playing here. When we tour Bangladesh, we get similar conditions,” he observed.
“I don’t think conditions will matter a lot to them. Probably, we will have the upper hand because of the way we played last year. Our fast bowlers performed well, the lower order continued to hit and batsmen have been doing well,” Pujara reckoned.
On Mehedi Hasan’s fine showing against England, he said, “That was a different wicket altogether. I have seen him bowl against England. (He) looks like a good bowler. But there was a lot of turn in that particular wicket. In both the Tests he bowled well. But I can comment after facing him, not just after watching him on television,” he concluded.
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