Pujara came with an intent to score runs: Rohit

TIL Desk Sports/ India’s senior opener Rohit Sharma believes that a player of Cheteshwar Pujara’s stature does not need to be told anything about his batting, and the unbeaten knock of 91 on Day 3 in the third Test against England showed his “intent” and “character”.

By stumps on the third evening, India were 215 for 2 in their second innings courtesy Pujara and Rohit, who scored a half-century, while skipper Virat Kohli was also closing in on the milestone. “You are talking about someone who has played 80-odd Test matches. I don’t think anything needs to be shown (to him) before Test matches.

“Yes, there are times to go and show all of that, but during Test matches, there isn’t time to go into the detail of what you are doing and what you want to do as a batter,” Rohit told mediapersons, when asked if Pujara was shown old video clips of his batting. The much talked-about word whenever Pujara comes in to bat is “intent” and Rohit felt that India’s number three batsman has that in abundance. “Pujara definitely came with an intent to score runs and this innings of ours was never about survival,” said Rohit, who himself scored 59.