Mohammad Rizwan reveals how Cheteshwar Pujara’s advice helped him in batting

Pakistan wicketkeeper batter Mohammad Rizwan and India’s Cheteshwar Pujara have been in the news since they started playing together for Sussex in the ongoing County Championship. Recently, they put together a partnership of 154 runs for their side, which became the talk of the town among the India and Pakistan cricket fans. Things, though, weren’t easy for the Pakistan player at the beginning of the competition.

Prior to the famous partnership, in which he scored 79, the right-hander had returned with scores of 22, 0, and 4. The 29-year-old revealed that he had a chat with his Indian counterpart amidst his poor run in the competition. He revealed that Pujara had asked him to start playing the ball close to the body, which benefited the Pakistan cricketer hugely.

“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. You don’t play very close to your body in white-ball since the ball doesn’t swing or seam as much,” Rizwan told Cricwick.

The wicketkeeper batter added that he had developed the habit of playing away from the body due to playing too much white-ball cricket. He also said that he was asked to play the drive shot without using any force, which is a general phenomenon in Asia

“So early on here, I played away from my body and got out twice similarly. 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.

Cheteshwar Pujara, on the other hand, has wreaked havoc with the bat in the ongoing Country Championship. In just 4 matches, he has scored over 700 runs and is, currently, the second highest run-getter in the competition.