As India’s top and middle order struggled to impress against Bangladesh in the ongoing first Test, out-of-favor batsman Cheteshwar Pujara posted a cryptic message.
India is currently busy playing the Test against Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. After Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bowl first, India’s batsmen failed to give the team a good start. The hosts lost as many as three big wickets in the first session.
Hasan Mahmud claimed all three wickets, dismissing Rohit Sharma (6), Shubman Gill (0) and Virat Kohli (6) cheaply to put Bangladesh in the driving seat. Yashasvi Jaiswal (56) and Rishabh Pant (39) halted the run for a while but could not put India in a position of strength as India found themselves six down for 144 at one stage.
As India’s batsmen failed to impress on the first day of the Test, Cheteshwar Pujara made sure to make his presence felt with a post on X (formerly Twitter). The veteran batsman took to the social media platform to post a video of himself training on the nets. He captioned the video: “Never stand still.”
Here is Cheteshwar Pujara’s post:
Never stand still!🏏 pic.twitter.com/Lxax3uRJML
– Cheteshwar Pujara (@cheteshwar1) September 19, 2024
Cheteshwar Pujara has not played for Team India since 2023. His last appearance in a Test match was in the World Test Championship final against Australia in June last year. Since being dropped from the Test squad, Gill has been batting at number three.
Pujara recently played for Sussex in the County Championship and made a good impression with the bat. He scored 501 runs in six matches, averaging over 60. The right-handed batsman also hit two centuries and a fifties.
Team India bounces back:
As for the match, Team India recovered from a poor start and ended the day in a commanding position. After being reduced to 144 for 6, India did not lose any more wickets on the day. The architects of the recovery were Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Ashwin and Jadeja have shared an unbeaten streak of 195 runs as India ended the day on 339/6. Ashwin was unbeaten on 102 while Jadeja was batting on 86 at the time of stumps.