HYDERABAD: Cheteshwar Pujara is hopeful that India will take the remaining seven wickets on the final day on Monday. Speaking to media at the end of the fourth day’s play, Pujara said they were aware that Bangladesh had batted well in difficult conditions for bowlers.
“The wicket has started turning now, slightly on the slower side. It should offer more assistance to the spinners tomorrow [Monday],” Pujara said.
“We actually expected the pitch to turn on Day 3. But credit to our bowlers for the way they bowled and showed patience,” he added.
On India not enforcing the follow-on on Sunday, Pujara said that since the Indians had fielded for more than a 100 overs, the thinking was to give at least a session’s break to the bowlers and also let the batsmen score as many as possible between the lunch and tea breaks to set a big target.
On whether a different Pujara will be on show with the bat in the days to come after the aggression he showed on Sunday, he said that it was an opportunity for him to approach his batting differently.
“We knew that we had to bat only for one session taking some risks which otherwise would not be the case generally in a Test,” Pujara said. “The thing is I can play a whole range of shots as you might have seen in domestic cricket,” he added. “The target was to score 150-200 runs before making the declaration.”
Commenting on off-spinner R. Ashwin’s world record of becoming the fastest to reach the 250-wicket mark in Tests, Pujara said he is the toughest spinner for any opposition.
“I congratulate him on setting this world record. He is very smart. A bowler who thinks like a batsman,” he said.
“I don’t think Ashwin was desperate in the first innings when Bangladesh batted well. He understands the situations where he should bowl tightly. He did bowl to a plan. One should always remember that we as a bowling unit have a plan,” added Pujara.
Bangladesh batting coach Thilan Samaraweera hoped that his team would not let the momentum shift in the first one hour on Monday.
“I just hope the players will stay calm and be mentally tough. It is important for us to come good as a unit. It is not that one specific player or the other has to don the anchoring role. We need at least four to five of the remaining batsmen to do that,” he said.
“Obviously captain Mushfiqur Rahman has been one of the best Test batsmen for us. He shows a lot of guts and wants to lead from the front,” added Samaraweera.
“The biggest concern for us has been batting in the second innings of a Test and facing reverse swing in international cricket,” Samaraweera said. “These are things which you will learn if you play more and more Test matches.”
When asked to make a comparison between Ashwin and the Sri Lankan great Muthiah Muralitharan, Samaraweera said they were two different and great bowlers.
“Muthaiah set a benchmark for others to follow with his 800-wicket haul in Test cricket. It is like [Sunil] Gavaskar setting it for Sachin [Tendulkar] and he in turn setting it for [Virat] Kohli in batting,” he said.
“I must say Ashwin is a very smart bowler with lots of variations which can trouble the best of the batsmen,” added Samaraweera.
