Josh Hazlewood Relieved Over Cheteshwar Pujara's Absence, Shares Humorous Anecdote From BGT

Australian fast bowler Josh Hazlewood recently expressed his relief over Cheteshwar Pujara's absence from the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy series in 2024-25. He acknowledged Pujara's resilience and effectiveness during previous tours in Australia, noting how the Indian Test specialist has been a formidable opponent.

Hazlewood pointed out that Pujara is known for spending significant time at the crease. The fast bowler also recognised the impact Pujara has had in wearing down the Australian bowling attack during crucial matches, making him a challenging player to bowl against.

During a Star Sports press conference, Pujara was asked to share a funny anecdote from the BGT series in Australia. The seasoned cricketer recounted an amusing incident involving Josh Hazlewood.

"One thing I've heard is that at one point Josh Hazlewood ended up saying in one of the team meetings where. They showed my videos and he ended up saying that I have seen enough of Pujara on the field so I don't want to see any of his videos."

Pujara also offered advice to Indian batters on handling short-pitched deliveries. When asked about their approach, he emphasised understanding one's strengths when facing such deliveries.

"When you are facing short pitch deliveries, you need to know whether you are a good puller. If you are, then you need to take the bowlers on, you need to play that shot. But the most important thing when you are facing short pitch deliveries is we end up playing hook shots which we are not quite capable of, I would say that most of the time on Indian pitches, most of the balls we faced, when we are facing short pitch deliveries are below the shoulder level and when we go to Australia, most of the short pitch deliveries are above the shoulder level," explained Pujara, highlighting the importance of recognising one's capabilities before tackling such balls.

Pujara stressed control and situational awareness for batters. "As a batter you need to just identify those balls that are the balls which are above my shoulder level or above my head height. Those are the balls which you need to leave, and the other balls which are at shoulder height or below that are the height where you can play your pull shots because most of our batters if you look at the current batting lineup, most of them are aggressive players," he said.

"They like playing that pull shot. But you need to be in control of the ball and that is where you know you need to have both. Sometimes you need to leave the balls, sometimes you need to play the pull shot. So it is about making the right decision when you are at the crease. So you can't have a set goal that, if the first ball is a bouncer, I'm going to play the pull shot. You just need to look at that ball and then make that decision," added Pujara.

The Rajkot-born cricketer finished as leading run-scorer in 2018-19 BGT series with 521 runs in four games. His performance included three centuries and a fifty, notably scoring 193 at SCG.