While most of the Indian superstars are busy playing for their franchises in the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Cheteshwar Pujara is doing wonders in the ongoing County Championship. One of Team India’s batting mainstays in the longest format of the game, Sussex captain Pujara scored a century in the first innings against Durham on Friday.
Pujara, who has been named captain for this season, brought up his ton in 134 balls by slamming back-to-back boundaries off Brydon Carse in the 55th over on the second day. His 115-run innings comprised 13 boundaries and a six. His century in the county championship also gives a lot of confidence to the Indian team management before the much-awaited World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia, scheduled to be played at The Oval in June.
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In a video clip shared on Twitter, Pujara speaks about how helpful the County stint has been for the revival of his career.
“Definitely (playing for Sussex has rejuvenated my career). If you look at the last season, I was out of the Indian team. I needed some runs to get back into the team. I got the right platform here. Scored a few runs and got back into the team. So, there is nothing like playing for the Indian team but Sussex has given me that opportunity and I’ll never forget that," Pujara could be heard saying in the video.
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“The weather is much better here. The sun is out most of the time. The environment is really nice. If you look at the crowd, whenever they come and they this support us and I feel that. Whenever there is a young team, they are always motivated to keep working on the game, keep learning and keep pushing. I like being in this environment," he added.
Due to a lack of runs, Pujara was axed from the Indian squad for Sri Lanka Tests at home last year. The Saurashtra batter revived himself by playing for Sussex in County Championship. Last season, Pujara had scored five hundreds, and was the fourth-highest run scorer in the Championship, accumulating 1094 runs in eight games.
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