When there’s Cheteshwar Pujara around, you try the maximum to extract how his mind functions and what qualities does he look for when responding to precise questions. What characteristics does he hold
as key to decide the basis for batters he considers quality! Isn’t it? After all, why would you let go of such a special opportunity? So recently the great test specialist for India, a man responsible for striking as many as 19 Test centuries was asked a very interesting question.
As a matter of fact the Saurashtra batter who played plenty of cricket for India in the competitive and grinding red ball format where he became a specialist wit the bat at the top order was asked to pick a noted list that included his top 10 and top 20 as well as the Top 5 opening bats. And given India who are playing a vital test series currently in Sri Lanka have a certain KL Rahul already in their ranks, the highly determined former Test cricketer for India was asked to explain his reasoning on the man from Karnataka to see if the man currently considered India’s best Test batter would make it to Pujara’s top 10 and Top 5 list!
When asked if KL Rahul would feature in his top 20 batters list:
“He has improved a lot that is why he’s in my top 20," Pujara told Cricinfo.
If KL Rahul would feature the top 10 list:
“He’s probably one of the best openers India has produced and the way he has been batting in overseas conditions that is why he’s in the top 10.”
When asked about if he’s in the former Saurashtra born cricketer’s top-5, this is what Pujara had to say:
“Well that is a tough one. Because we are talking over the years so he (KL Rahul) may or may not be there, which is why it’s a tough one!”
Continuing further, Pujara shared now I’m going to share my top 3 openers of all time, emphasising on the fact that the ones he’s going to pick are his top 3 favourites ones and the following are the names he picked:
Sunil Gavaskar. Murali Vijay. Virender Sehwag.
The technically correct batter known for putting a huge prize on his wicket didn’t- and perhaps this may strike or surprise many who’d have followed Pujara’s picks- go for names like Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar or Rohit Gurunath Sharma.
But what you can easily gather is the fact that each of the batters that the former right handed number 3 for India picked as his top 3 openers in Test match cricket have a common thread. And that’s their correctness in batting technique. Surely, someone like the dominant and usually big hitting Sehwag was way more agressive even in the international red ball format for India when compared to the legend Gavaskar who was more conservative and watchful or Murali Vijay who was more elegant and cautious, we can point to a perspective.
And it’s that even Virender Sehwag had the tendency to bat long and stay at the wicket for long hours whilst not morphing or clouding his natural aggressive run making style. Perhaps that best explains why the man adored as “Viru” has two triple centuries to his name, one each against the likes of Pakistan and South Africa with 319 against the latter being his top score. As also the record for the highest individual record score!
