New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) Cheteshwar Pujara has backed Ishan Kishan’s aggressive approach at No. 3 in India’s ongoing T20I series, arguing that the wicketkeeper-batter’s contribution should be judged by his impact on the team rather than the size of his individual scores.
Pujara has also praised Naman Dhir’s emergence as a useful bowling option, pointing to the allrounder’s control, variations and ability to adjust his plans as qualities that can make him effective in the shortest format.
With India seeking contributions from a top order built around attacking batters, Pujara believes Kishan’s responsibility is to maintain the tempo established in the powerplay rather than to pursue a major score in every innings. The former India batter’s assessment offers a different way of looking at the left-hander’s performances, placing the team’s scoring requirements ahead of personal milestones.
“Coming in at number 3, Ishan Kishan is giving the Indian team what they need. I don’t think you will see a big score every time because everyone in the top order is an explosive player. Their role is only to give the team a good start and to utilise the powerplay to the maximum. So, whenever Ishan Kishan comes out to bat, he has maximised the powerplay, and after that, if you want him to accelerate, he has scored those quickfire 30-40 runs as well.
“I think that’s good enough. Maybe, for his personal milestones, you might want him to score big runs, but he is doing the job for the team at the moment,” Pujara told JioStar.
Pujara highlighted Naman Dhir’s ability to learn from a difficult passage of play and still execute a plan. Rather than focusing solely on the wickets he takes, Pujara pointed to the thought process behind Dhir’s deliveries, including his use of line, length and pace to challenge batters.
“Naman has shown that he has great control and has the ability to pick up wickets. He is aware of what the batsman is doing and how he can get his wicket. Mostly, he keeps the ball on the stumps and wants to cramp the batsman, like he did with Kamil Pooran in the last game, where he was hit for three sixes. The execution was not that good on the first two deliveries, but he stuck to his plan, adjusted his line a bit, and got the wicket.
“It’s great game awareness. And if you look at his speed, these speeds are quite slow for a spinner in the T20 format, so that shows that he is varying his pace constantly, deceiving the batsman with variations in line and length, and he understands his own strength as a bowler,” he added.
–IANS
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