117:Crowd at Lord's erupts in joy as Cheteshwar Pujara opens his account on 35th ball in India's second innings
It would be safe to regard Test cricket as the ultimate assessment of a batsman’s composure, grit, technique and mindset. Speaking of the same, Cheteshwar Pujara has surely made his way onto the top of the list. The 33-year-old might be struggling to time the ball at the moment in overseas conditions, but his patience has always been a true weapon. Justifying the same, Pujara gathered a huge applause from the crowd present in the second Test match against England at Lord's after he managed to register his first run in India's second innings.
The veteran Indian Test batsman managed to score his first run after playing a tally of 35 balls against a fiery English bowling line-up which was able to seize the first session of Day 4 by clinching the wickets of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. What was even more significant, that Virat Kohli, who was at the non-striking end also came up to congratulate Cheteshwar Pujara sarcastically as the players enjoyed the jolly moment.
Watch the video here:
As the video clip of the crowd cheering on for the Saurashtra cricketer went viral, it left the Twitterati with enough material after this incident to opinionate upon the same. On one hand, where some fanatics where praising Pujara for his composure and patience, there were a handful who took a sarcastic dig at him, comparing him to a slow-paced tortoise and even to an impassable wall.
As things stand, India have been evidently vanquished in the second innings, with KL Rahul departing for 5 and Rohit Sharma for 21 and Virat Kohli on 20 in the very first session of Day 4. Having said that, this is the perfect opportunity for Pujara to answer his critics by playing a solid anchor-role for India.