It was quite distinctive in Cheteshwar Pujara's Test career that he came to bat in the WTC final, when New Zealand started getting their radar right and bowling as they do at their best: utmost discipline and with continuity.
After a poor start, the New Zealand pacers were back in control of line and length and were now applying the kind of pressure you would expect from the first ball. There was no hit-me ball on offer anymore. Zero relief, something a batsman wants and needs in tough situations.
Pujara has built his impressive career for India playing from exactly such a period. He is a grafter of the highest class, with a lot of patience, flexibility and charming strokemakers with the ability to fit in and thrive in the Indian batting line-up shining.
Cheteshwar Pujara has done a great job of overcoming his shortcomings in technique and range (vs pace) and finding a way to influence Test matches, scoring 6,244 runs with 46.59 runs in 85 Tests.
Perhaps the most telling of Pujara's role and importance was his most recent series in Australia - more than the one in 2018-19 where he hit three hundreds. On the surface, Pujara's stats gave a poor account of his performance: 271 runs at 33.88 in 8 innings.
However, the numbers do a gross injustice to what Pujara did for India, as he was arguably the most important player in their series win. He was the pillow that allowed others to prosper by playing out Pat Cummins & Co.'s toughest chants.
When the surfaces were the toughest and the bowling was unreliable, Pujara closed one end for India in Sydney and Brisbane, forcing them to try to attack the more free batsmen at the other end.
Gill and Pant were excellent, but there would have been no breach of Fort 'Gabba' without Cheteshwar Pujara, who brought Australia to their knees one ball at a time. Performed by some of Cummins' unstoppable men earlier in the series, Pujara could easily have received more individual rewards for his marathon effort. But, perhaps his ultimate reward was the team's victory.
The qualities that helped Cheteshwar Pujara win Australia were on display against Southampton as well as the Kiwis as he once again looked to shun risk, not flirt with anything outside and even That if it means the opposition is getting frustrated and moving away from their plans slowly.
Before his 36th ball, Pujara opened his strike with a brilliant cut short against Wagner, which was backed up with a cover-drive from Class and Command. Cricvij said that in the afternoon session, in which Pujara batted heavily in his innings, India's false shot percentage (12%) was the lowest for the day. New Zealand saw a decline of 8% and 17% from the morning onwards compared to the last session, despite the high swing.
It all went according to plan, until Trent Boult made a swift comeback at the crease off Pujara's 54th ball and lbw. This ended a promising start to what India aspire to become another important long haul in the cause.
As expected, Pujara's dismissal for just 8 also put a question mark on his long standing manner at the crease. Note "intent" aside, this time it was about whether his approach fits well for English situations, where the red duke's ball swings much longer than the rest of the world .
Does Cheteshwar Pujara need to change his approach to the English conditions?
Combine swing with moist, fast pitches, and you're never really 'in' as a batsman in England. A direct contrast with Australia, where the red kookaburra softens over time, does not seam beyond the 30-over mark and bowlers really have to turn their backs to dismiss well-set batsmen. Another important aspect here is the weather. In the foggy conditions in England, bowlers are not as tired in daytime play as they do in the hot and humid areas of Australia.
So, is Cheteshwar Pujara's approach to the English tour self-defeating? To answer that, let's look at Pujara's past record in the UK. In two tours, 10 Tests and 19 innings, Pujara has now scored 508 runs in England at an average of 28.22. These Tests are spread over two different seasons - 2014-15 and 2018-19.
In the first one, Pujara scored 222 runs at 22.20 and 278 at 39.71 before showing a marked improvement. He batted 51 balls per innings in the 2014 series, as opposed to running for 90.75 balls per innings in 2018. It is fair to say, problems in the first series ruined Pujara's overall record in England, which is similar to that of Virat Kohli.
Interestingly, when you focus on this from the 2014 series to 2018 (43.52 to 38.29), Pujara's strike-rate comes back. But for those who have watched his career closely, this will not come as a surprise. Pujara is no longer the Pujara of the 2014–15 season, when he first traveled regularly with the team to army countries. That Pujara was the more freeflowing scorer (by his standard) with a wider range outside off-stump.
Old K Pujara was a superior backfoot player who used the width of the crease to go back and climb over the short ball and play cuts and pulls as well as hooks against the fast bowlers. Today, he is a frontfoot batsman who will only drive what he is right for the pitch or cut only those whose height he is sure of.
The change in methodology and approach could be due to the fact that India played on a comparatively easier track against deeper attacks in that cycle of overseas tours as compared to 2018-19. Or at the same time, quietly pay attention to his limited-overs aspiration, which he has expressed from time to time. Pujara took his first big dip after scoring runs during the IPL in 2014, remember?
When he went back to the SENA countries, Pujara recognized the tough nature of surfaces and gave up risk-taking altogether, realizing that his real value to the side was to become an even more compact grafter than before. But, while Pujara's new avatar stays longer at the crease, he doesn't score as freely while there. Overall, since the start of 2018, Pujara has faced the most number of deliveries among Indian batsmen (3,753) in those matches, away from India. But has also batted at the lowest strike-rate (35.43) among his most regular teammates.
However, in his role it is not the scoring rate that matters how long Pujara can crush the opposition bowling. And, as he has shown by increasing his productivity from one trip to the next, his methods are not so ineffective even under English conditions. Cheteshwar Pujara's case should not be viewed in isolation, it has wider implications and at the moment, it is one of India's bigger forces that aided in his success.