Ravichandran Ashwin says Cheteshwar Pujara played an instrumental role in helping Virat Kohli make a lot of his runs

Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin reckons Cheteshwar Pujara played a key role in helping Virat Kohli make a lot of his Test runs. It is well known that the number three batter plays a crucial role in Test cricket and Pujara was a perfect foil to Kohli, who batted at number four.

Kohli scored 9230 runs in 123 Test matches at an average of 46.85 and recently announced his red-ball retirement in May. 

Ashwin recalled the Wanderers Test when Pujara took 54 balls to get off the mark on a tricky pitch against the pace trio of Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander. Pujara scored a gutsy knock of 50 runs off 179 balls whereas Kohli scored 54 off 106 balls.

Thus, India posted 187 runs in the first innings and eventually won the Test match by 63 runs.

“Pujara’s contribution at No. 3, if you agree or don’t, was instrumental in helping Virat Kohli also make a lot of his runs, and I have one such case as an example. In the final Test against South Africa at the Wanderers, where the pitch was deemed too dangerous at one stage, Pujara played 53 balls before he got off the mark. A thankless job a really, really, spiteful Wanderers pitch, the ball was going all over the place,” Ashwin said in a tribute video for Pujara on his YouTube channel.

After Pujara’s retirement, Ashwin reckons the batter’s defense videos should get viral on the social media platforms.

“Pujara is one such guy, when he bats it looks like a symphony. You may see reels on Instagram, edits like Virat’s cover drive, Rohit Sharma’s pull shot, MS Dhoni’s Helicopter Shot, but Pujara’s defense, even that has to be featured with music and all that,” Ashwin said.”He is a Test legend, absolute massive legend of Indian cricket, his contribution is no less than anyone else. I would put my head on the block, his contribution is not less than anyone else, whether it be Virat, or Rohit, or anybody,” he added.

Pujara played 103 Tests and 5 ODIs for India after making his debut back in 2010. He scored 7,195 Test runs at an average of 43.60, with 19 hundreds and 35 fifties.