Last Update: June 01, 2023, 08:54 AM IST
Cheteshwar Pujara will be crucial to India’s chances of winning the WTC. (AFP photo)
The final of the ICC World Test Championship will be played at The Oval from June 7.
While his Indian teammates were hitting fours and sixes in IPL 2023, Cheteshwar Pujara was captaining Sussex in England, playing county cricket in the run-up to the ICC World Test Championship final. With the IPL over, attention has quickly shifted to the World Championship final, in which India will take on Australia from June 7 at the Oval in London.
In eight matches of the ongoing County Championship, Pujara has scored 545 runs at an average of 68.12, including three centuries and a half-century, which shows that he is in great form. Naturally, he has been the only member of India’s WTC final squad to have played red-ball cricket in the last two months and thanks to that experience, his teammates will rely on his inputs.
Gavaskar said, “The fact that he is around would mean that he must have also seen how the pitch is behaving at the Oval.” star sports,
“He may not have played at the Oval, he may not be away from London in Sussex, but he will have his eye on what is happening and as far as the batting unit is concerned or even His inputs will be invaluable as far as the captaincy is concerned,” he added.
Interestingly, Pujara had Steve Smith as his Sussex teammate for a few matches of the season and Gavaskar feels the India middle-order batsman will help his team strategise to keep the Aussie batsman quiet. can do.
Gavaskar said, “…don’t forget that he (Pujara) is also captaining the team (Sussex) so he must have worked out some strategies, given that Australian Steve Smith is his partner at the moment.” Are.”
India will play in their second consecutive WTC final after qualifying after finishing second in the standings. The competition is set to begin on June 7 at The Oval.
