- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S stand-in Jasprit Bumrah, who was leading the national side for the first time ever, sprung a surprise on Friday (1) by sending middle-order better Cheteshwar Pujara to open the innings with Shubman Gill after England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and invited the visitors to bat in the delayed fifth Test of the 2021 series at Edgbaston. And Pujara hit a boundary as his first scoring shot, leaving netizens impressed.
Pujara, who was promoted to make up for the absence of regular opener Rohit Sharma who has been ruled out of the Test after testing Covid-19 positive, is not new to opening the innings in the long format. He first opened for India in Tests in 2012 against the same opponents in Ahmedabad at home and put up 57 runs with former batter Virender Sehwag to help India secure a 9-wicket win. He scored 41 or those runs and remained unbeaten and it came after his double hundred scored in the first innings in his usual batting position of three.
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So far, Pujara has opened for India in red-ball cricket on seven occasions, scoring 395 runs with the highest score of 145 not out made against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2015. He carried the bat through India’s first innings on that occasion to help them win. However, all his runs as the opener came at No.2 position where he batted on six occasions and scored a duck the only time he opened as a striker.
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On Friday, Pujara opened his account late and it came with a boundary against seamer Stuart Broad. The opening partnership scored 27 runs before Gill fell to James Anderson for 17.
A divided Twitter spoke out to Pujara opening the innings and here are some reactions:
PUJARA SAAB GETTING OFF THE MARK WITH A BOUNDARY ? pic.twitter.com/WpoyQAMvWa
— best girl (@awkdipti) July 1, 2022
So #Pujara opens …. Interesting!!! Batting is key for #India in this match…. #INDvsENG
— Sai Kiran (@sk_kiran16) July 1, 2022
Jasprit Bumrah as debut captain and Pujara is opening. I'm not sure India have put their strongest 11 up for this game. Vihari is more than capable of batting, but I'm not sure with Puji opening#INDvsENG #Cricket #Pujara #Bumrah
— Muneeb Ur Rehman (@Muneeb118) July 1, 2022
I think last time Pujara opened… It was back in 2015 against SL in Colombo.. he scored a 145* in the first innings followed by a two ball duck in the second innings… #EnglandvsIndia #England #Pujara
— Cricket Everywhere✍🏻 (@Subhamk79241601) July 1, 2022
Happy to see Pujara back in the eleven, but might just be his last Test too for a long while??!! need to make it count #Pujara#INDvsENG
— Jatin Khandelwal (@jr_khandelwal) July 1, 2022
Hanuma Vihari was set to bat at No.3 while Ravindra Jadeja was picked as the sole spinner by India to assist the fast bowling battery, including Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami. All-rounder Shardul Thakur was another fast bowling option that India have in the game.
