Cheteshwar Pujara's strike rate has been under the scanner despite his records in the format. When Virat Kohli led the Indian side and Ravi Shastri was head coach, it was clear that the duo wanted him to score at a faster rate and not look to approach Test cricket with old fashioned approach.
Former India fielding coach R Sridhar in his book 'Coaching Beyond' revealed an incident from 2019 against South Africa when Shastri got fed up of Pujara's natural game. As a result, Shastri sent a messenger in the middle during drinks break to send a message to Pujara who was batting on 8 off 61 deliveries.
"Virat and Ravi wanted Pujara to score faster and the reason was because they were sure he had the skill set to do it. It was a question of convincing him that he could do so at international level. If he needed bollocking occasionally, Ravi was happy to oblige, like in Visakhapatnam in October 2019," Sridhar wrote in his book.
India were in a good position at Visakhapatnam in the Test against Faf du Plessis-led side. Double century from Mayank Agarwal and century from Rohit Sharma helped India post 502/7 before declaring. In the second innings, India had a lead over 100 with Rohit taking the attacking approach. But Pujara had not scored a run in 20 balls which frustrated the former coach.
"We were looking for quick runs in the second innings so that we could stick South Africa back in. Rohit Sharma, who had got a 100 in the first innings, was again flowing, but Pujara got stuck. At one stage he was 8 off 61 deliveries when Ravi decided he had seen enough. So he called one of the substitute fielder and instructed him to repeat his message to Pujara verbatim, 'Stop riding a Luna and get on a Harley-Davidson'. There was a passage of play just after that where Pujara actually outscored Rohit. He had the capacity; it was important to ensure his thoughts were always aligned to that of the team and to make him realise that he had the tools to do so," Sridhar recalled.
Shastri's tough love turned out to be the kick Pujara needed to push through. From 8 off 61 deliveries, Pujara reached his half-century from 106 deliveries. He hit his Test career's 12th and 13th six in the same innings. He ended up getting lbw by Vernon Philander but scored 81 runs from 148 deliveries at a strike rate of 54.73. After Shastri's message, the Saurashtra batter 73 runs from 87 deliveries. His knock was studded with 13 fours and two sixes.
India posted a total of 323/4 before declaring. India set a target of 395 for South Africa. The Proteas succumbed under pressure and got bowled out for 191, losing the match by a huge margin of 203 runs.
