As India looks to put up a hat-trick of Test series wins in Australia later this year, Hanuma Vihari reckons the absence of Cheteshwar Pujara will be felt big time during the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy. (More Cricket News)
Vihari was part of India's back-to-back Test series winning team in Australia, where Pujara played a heroic role in both triumphs. Pujara was the top-scorer in the 2018-19 series with 521 runs including three centuries, laying the foundation of a historic 2-1 victory, a first on Australian soil. He was adjudged the Man of the Series on that tour.
Three years later, Pujara once again played a crucial part in India's 2-1 win in Australia as he accumulated 271 runs in the series, the second-highest for India after Rishabh Pant's 274.
With another Australia tour on the horizon, Pujara remains totally out of favour of the Indian management.
"Pujara will a big miss. he was the backbone of the batting line-up in the last two series for Team India," Vihari told PTI in an interaction arranged by JioCinema.
Apart from the runs Pujara scored, his long stays on the crease also played a part in tiring out the top-class Australian bowling attack. The Saurashtra batter played 1258 balls on the 2018-19 tour and 928 balls in the next against an Australian attack consisting of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.
"He took blows, he batted time, he stayed there for a long time, he saw the new ball, he got runs. He made the job easier for the other batters coming in," Vihari added.
"He can stay on and bat the most number of overs and you know batting in Australia is all about time. If you see off the new ball, it gets a little easier with the older Kookaburra ball," added the Andhra batter who played the last of his 16 Tests in July 2022.
One of Vihari's most memorable India outings came in Australia when he combined with R Ashwin to bat out 42.2 overs to draw a Test match in Sydney during India's last tour. The right-hander reckons that KL Rahul's role at No 6, where he batted in that innings, will be crucial.
"That's where KL Rahul's role also will be important because he is someone who's got the experience in playing in SENA countries and he can bat long. He has done well in SENA countries. I feel they are looking at KL Rahul at number 6 as well.
"By playing Rahul ahead of Sarfaraz in the current series (against Bangladesh), they are looking at a bigger picture. They want experience in number 6 when we tour Australia.
"Because in Australia playing at 6 you need to have good technique whether it's facing the second new ball or batting after an early collapse," he said.
"It's his biggest test. But he's a very confident guy. Overall facing Australia in Australia, the mental preparation is key. This time we are playing five Test matches in Australia compared to four earlier.
"So it's even more mentally draining Down Under because everything is against you. The media is against you, the people are against you and you are away from home facing Australian attack in Australia," added Vihari.
