After a successful tour of England and Scotland, Saurashtra's young batsman Cheteshwar Pujara speaks exclusively to Rediff.com
A summary of Friday's action in the Ranji Trophy matches across the country.
'...it's been Shubman Gill, who's been moving from the opener's slot, and he himself wanted to bat at No. 3.'
Cheteshwar Pujara looked rock-solid while Suryakumar Yadav played his natural attacking game as their contrasting half-centuries put West Zone in complete control.
'Gill's footwork may have been a bit lazy, but he will learn from it since he is still young. However, Pujara's failure to position himself closer to the ball and across the line is highly disappointing.'
Shubman Gill, silenced his doubters with a noteworthy performance in the recent Test series against England.
Saurabh Kumar was virtually unplayable on a raging turner, returning with a match-haul of 10 wickets as Rest of India beat Saurashtra
The world's top two Test teams will clash in a five-match affair starting on November 22 in Perth and India will enter the contest having held the trophy for nearly a decade, which includes winning two consecutive series Down Under.
Pujara scores third hundred.
Ravichandran Ashwin's childhood coach Sunil Subramanian wished the experienced off-spinner ahead of his 100th Test as India is set to lock horns with England in the fifth and final Test of the five-match series at Dharamsala from Thursday.
After several losses in the early years of the new century, a resurgent India notched up two consecutive series wins in Australia to become the Aussies' nemesis.
Rajneesh Gupta presents all the interesting numbers from Day 4 of the India-England Test at Lord's.
Mayank Agarwal, vice-captain of South, Sarfaraz Khan and Prithvi Shaw have come to this match riding on heaps of runs that they have made in the previous Ranji season.
Swann said he benefitted from legendary Shane Warne's advice on how to play on spin-friendly Indian wickets.
Batting stalwart Cheteshwar Pujara, ignored for the two-Test series against South Africa, cracked an unbeaten century as defending champions Saurashtra made a mockery of the Jharkhand bowling attack.
Virat Kohli's last Test century was against Bangladesh in November 2019. Will century 28 come at Chattogram?
A day after their Test careers met with a dead end, veteran batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane on Friday soldiered on for Saurashtra and Mumbai respectively with contrasting results in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Bengaluru.
Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw and Ajinkya Rahane flopped with the bat as defending champions Mumbai were shocked by Baroda by 84 runs.
Left-arm India seamer Jaydev Unadkat will join his Saurashtra teammate Cheteshwar Pujara at Sussex for three games in the County Championship in September.
With Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane unbeaten at the end of the penultimate day of the WTC Final, will India pull off another stunning win?
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravindra Jadeja and K S Bharat enjoyed their outing.
India opted to bring in Rajat Patidar as Kohli's replacement.
Defending champions Mumbai got their Ranji Trophy campaign back on track with an emphatic nine-wicket win over Maharashtra in their second group A league game in Mumbai on Monday, offsetting the heavy loss to Baroda in the opening game.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir, BCCI president Roger Binny and all-rounder Hardik Pandya led the long list of joyous members of the cricketing fraternity in lauding Jay Shah, who was on Tuesday elected unopposed as the ICC Chairman.
The Australian captain's gesture won cricketing hearts all over.
Images from Day 4 of the third Test between Australia and India in Brisbane on Tuesday.
India will be under tremendous pressure when they face an equally circumspect Australia in a battle of two out-of-form batting units in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth
For India's current head coach, the Test series defeat against New Zealand at home, a first in 12 years and after 18 victories on the trot, would be a bitter pill to swallow.
Cricket fraternity hails Gautam Gambhir appointment
Yashasvi Jaiswal joined the legendary Sunil Gavaskar as the only two Indian batters to score more than 700 runs in a bilateral Test series.
As many as four world-class match-winners are expected to bid adieu to the game one by one in the next couple of years and Gautam Gambhir is in an unenviable position as head coach.
'All love surround you and the pure light within you, Guide your way home.'
Cheteshwar Pujara is India's latest run-machine. The 20-year-old has already amassed 876 runs in eight matches and ensured Saurashtra a place in the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy for a second year running.
'I know he is on record saying that the Test match game is probably a little bit hard on his body. But for a one-off game... he's been bowling every game through this IPL and he's bowling quick.'
Though India have just 75 to defend, Cheteshwar Pujara said there's still a chance for India deny Australia a win in the third Test.
Ashwin is the only Indian to score a century and bag a five-wicket in a single Test. He has achieved this feat on three occasions.
Cheteshwar Pujara, who achieved the landmark 100 Test matches, got a specially created 100th Test cap from the legendary Sunil Gavaskar.
Eoin Morgan said the current Indian team ranks as "one of the greatest in their own conditions".
