“Stop riding a Luna and…:” How Ravi Shastri passed on a message to Cheteshwar Pujara after his 8 off 61
Cheteshwar Pujara, who has done wonders as a Test specialist for India, has also been time and again criticised for his slow approach in red-ball cricket. While Pujara has recently shown a lot of intent and has adopted a positive approach while batting in Test cricket, in the past, he has been criticised for occasionally going into a shell.
Not to forget, Pujara’s played a huge role in India’s Test series triumph on the Australia soil where he scored 521 runs at 41.41 which included three centuries.
Former Team India fielding coach R Sridhar, in his book, has revealed how during a Test match between India and South Africa in 2019, Pujara’s slow approach frustrated Ravi Shastri after which he sent a message to the right-hander through a substitute fielder.
“Virat and Ravi wanted Pujara to score faster and the reason was because they were sure he had the skill set to do it. It was a question of convincing him that he could do so at international level. If he needed bollocking occasionally, Ravi was happy to oblige, like in Visakhapatnam in October 2019,” Sridhar wrote in his book ‘Coaching Beyond’.
Sridhar went on to add how during the same match, opener Rohit Sharma was in good flow after hitting a century in the first innings but Pujara got stuck at the other end and Shastri had to send a message after he scored just 8 runs off 61 balls at one point of time.
“We were looking for quick runs in the second innings so that we could stick South Africa back in. Rohit Sharma, who had got a 100 in the first innings, was again flowing, but Pujara got stuck. At one stage he was 8 off 61 deliveries when Ravi decided he had seen enough. So he called one of the substitute fielder and instructed him to repeat his message to Pujara verbatim, ‘Stop riding a Luna and get on a Harley-Davidson’. There was a passage of play just after that where Pujara actually outscored Rohit. He had the capacity; it was important to ensure his thoughts were always aligned to that of the team and to make him realise that he had the tools to do so,” Sridhar added.
