Cheteshwar Pujara reveals snub from CSK in 2021 motivated his Royal London Cup form

In the Royal London One-Day Cup, Pujara hit three hundreds and a fifty registering scores of 107, 174, 49*, 66 and 132.

He also scored 1094 runs in the County Championship Division Two for the same club. (Twitter/Cheteshwar Pujara)

Cheteshwar Pujara stated that the snub by Chennai Super Kings in 2021, where he was part of the IPL title winning squad but did not get a game, had motivated him to change his approach while batting in shorter formats of the game. This in turn lit a fire under him and led to his recent purple patch in the Royal London One-Day Cup where he scored 624 runs in 9 matches for Sussex.

Talking to the Cricket Podcast, the veteran Indian player said, “This is a different side of my game for sure. Pitches were good, slightly flat but even those surfaces, you need to have that intent of scoring at a higher strike-rate. This is something which I have always worked on.

“I was part of CSK a year before last and when I didn’t play any games and saw the guys prepare, I told myself that if I want to play the shorter format. I always used to put a big prize on my wicket but I the shorter formats, you still want to play your shots in your game.”

Story continues below this ad

“I worked on it before the Royal London One-Day Cup. I went with Grant (Flower) and spoke to him that there are some shots which I want to work. When we were training, he told me that I am executing those really well and that gave me confidence. I thought that if I could keep working on some of the lofted shots which could help me and if I can execute those, I could be successful even in shorter formats,” he added.

In the Royal London One-Day Cup, Pujara hit three hundreds and a fifty registering scores of 107, 174, 49*, 66 and 132. He also scored 1094 runs in the County Championship Division Two for the same club.

Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.