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 travelled 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.
During the Test series in India earlier in 2023, Smith was crucial to the dismissal of Pujara in what was a crucial time in Indore, both with his field settings as he captained in the absence of Pat Cummins, and then with his brilliant catch at leg slip.
Pujara is currently the captain of Sussex and will hope to combine and create a formidable duo at No. 3 and 4 in the ongoing county cricket division 2 championship.
"We have spoken, but most of the time we have played against each other. It is never for the same team, so it will be exciting to have him in the same side," Pujara told Sussex Cricket after the recent match against Gloucestershire. "I will try and get his thoughts, try and know him a little better.
"We will be playing WTC final, so it will be mixed feelings. On the field we always have good battles, but off the field we are good friends."
"He's a great influence to have in the team," Pujara, currently the leading run-scorer in Division Two, said. "Will be looking forward to having him in the dressing room and trying to have a chat with him, learn from him, see how he prepares because he has a lot of experience [and] the amount of runs he has scored in Test cricket.
"All of us are looking forward to having him here and sharing his experience. He has a lot of knowledge about the game so it will be nice to have his inputs."
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