As a red-ball cricketer, Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan wishes to have the focus and concentration levels of his County teammate Cheteshwar Pujara.
With two centuries and as many double hundreds in Sussex’s County Championship Division 2 campaign, Pujara has made a strong case for a Test comeback.
Mohammad Rizwan on Cheteshwar Pujara
While playing for Sussex in the ongoing County Championship, India’s ace Test batter Cheteshwar Pujara and Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan are enjoying one other’s company.
It’s worth noting that Pujara has been one of the team’s most consistent batters, scoring 717 runs in four games so far, but the situation with Rizwan isn’t quite the same. While Pujara is the season’s second-highest run-scorer, the Pakistan hitter has had a shaky start.
Rizwan described how, after suffering early dismissals in County matches, we went to Pujara for a conversation and got some guidance from him. Pujara’s words of wisdom on the technique of playing close to the body were also taken by the Pakistani player.
In Sussex’s encounter against Durham, Pujara and Rizwan put on a solid 154-run partnership, with the former scoring a double tonne (203), and the latter contributing 79 runs.
The Peshawar cricketer posted scores of 22, 0, and 4 in three innings before blasting 79 runs. Rizwan ended the talk on a lighthearted note by mentioning what he learned from Pujara, and one can inquire as to what the Pakistani player learned from him (with a laugh). Sussex’s next match is on Thursday, May 12th, against Leicestershire.
“With Pujara, I had a chat with him after I got out early. He told me a few things and one of them was to play close to the body. And as everyone knows, we have been playing white-ball cricket consistently over the past few years and play a bit away from our body. In white-ball, you don’t play very close to your body since the ball doesn’t swing or seam as much,” Rizwan said.
“So early on here, I played away from my body and got out twice in a similar way. Then I went over to meet him in the nets and I remember him saying that when we play in Asia, we force the ball to play the drive. Here, we don’t need to do that. And we need to play close to the body. I have played white-ball cricket consistently. So, these are the things which he told me and whatever he learned from me, he can tell [laughs],” he added.
