"He’s obviously one that bats time": Hazlewood on Cheteshwar Pujara

Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood is pretty happy that he will not have to bowl to India Test veteran Cheteshwar Pujara in the latest chapter of Border-Gavaskar Trophy, beginning here on Friday.

The Indian team has moved on from the likes of Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, both of whom played a major hand in ensuring the visitors’ back-to-back win Down Under four years ago. Pujara was the rock of Indian batting on the previous two tours Down Under. He faced the maximum numbers of balls to wear down Australia’s formidable pace attack.

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The out-of-favour batter was the leading run-getter in the 2018-19 series with 521 runs off 1,258 balls and was once again the backbone of Indian batting three years later when he accumulated 271 runs off 928 balls.

“I am pretty happy that Puj [Pujara] isn’t here. He’s obviously one that bats time, makes you really earn his wicket every time, has done really well on Australia on all these tours,” Hazlewood told reporters ahead of the first Test here. Despite Pujara’s absence, he feels there is enough talent in the Indian squad.

“So there’s always young, fresh guys coming into the Indian team. Whoever they pick in that XI, they are unbelievable players,” he said.

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