'While you are playing with each other you try...': Steve Smith on the prospect of batting alongside Cheteshwar Pujara for Sussex

Star Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara will find a new teammate in Australia cricketer Steve Smith when the star batter arrives in England to begin his preparations for the upcoming

SportsTak

• Wed • 03 May 2023

Star Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara will find a new teammate in Australia cricketer Steve Smith when the star batter arrives in England to begin his preparations for the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final at the Oval in England from June 7-11. Ahead of the mega match, the duo will be teammates at Sussex.

Both of them have already faced off this year in four Test matches when Australia traveled to India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. And now, Smith will join Pujara, with the latter having already hit two centuries in the ongoing season.

Ahead of Sussex's game against Worcestershire, which is scheduled to begin on May 4 (Thursday), Smith opened up on the prospect of playing alongside Pujara.

"The day I don't want to keep getting better and learning is the day I would probably call it quits. I am keen to play with Puj (Pujara) as well. I have played against him a lot, seen him score lot of runs against me. Hopefully we can spend a bit of time together in the middle and learn more about each other," Smith told Sussex Cricket website.

You are playing for the same team, have seen that for years playing the IPL While you are playing with each other you try as hard as you can have to success as a team and we will take care of their rest later on." he added.

Both Smith and Pujara are gearing up for the World Test Championship (WTC) final that is slated to be played at The Oval between June 7-June 11. Smith, meanwhile, is also gearing up for a lengthy Ashes series that will commence after the WTC final.

"It is nice to be here. I have always wanted to play county cricket and it is going to be my first time which is hard to believe. It is going to be an exciting summer. England have been playing some incredible cricket over the last 12 months, very different from what we have seen before and we have been playing well too," Smith said on playing County cricket and the ensuing Ashes.