Former Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt has expressed his disappointment over Cheteshwar Pujara’s knock against England in the second test match at Lord’s, London. Pujara, who struggled to put runs under his belt, played a patient knock to revive India from early collapse.
India lost early wickets in the second innings on day four. Both the openers – KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma along with skipper Virat Kohli were already back in the hut with 55 runs on the board. Cheteshwar Pujara played cautiously scoring 45 runs off 206 deliveries.
– Loud cheers after Pujara gets off the mark with his 35th ball
– Loud cheers after Pujara gets to 100 balls with 12 runs to his nameYou gotta love this crowd 😄 pic.twitter.com/IS1ChpTqVN
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) August 15, 2021
In a video uploaded on Salman Butt’s Youtube Channel, the former cricketer opined that Pujara could have shown a bit more intent while batting as the pitch was not offering a lot of movement to the bowlers. He said,
“Speaking about Cheteshwar Pujara, he faced more than 200 balls and scored 45 runs. After being so experienced, if you are facing over 200 balls, I think you should be able to score at least 70 runs. The pitch did not offer a lot of movement. England kept things very tight early on. But once that was gone, there should have been better flow of runs. That did not happen.”
Pujara gets a jaffa from Wood and is caught at slip, just after he brings up the 100 partnership.
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Cheteshwar Pujara should have scored more than 45 runs: Salman Butt
Salma Butt further added that India needed to be careful at the start, but could have scored at a quicker rate once the batsmen were set. He said,
“Despite batting for so long, if India is unable to add another 35-40 run. If someone occupies the crease for so much time and doesn’t score runs, that doesn’t make sense. Yes, India needed to be careful for a period of an hour or a little more. But despite being set, the runs didn’t come. Being in the Indian team for so long, Pujara is obviously a highly capable player. But that needs to translate into runs. He should have scored more than 45.”
Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane put together a 100-run stand. However, the duo was dismissed in the final session. At stumps, India was 181 for six down, leading by 154 runs.