County stint helped, says centurion Pujara

Pujara scored 153 in India’s mammoth 600 against Sri Lanka in the opening Test. “Playing County cricket is always challenging. So you never get easy runs. Most of the times, you are playing on challenging wickets. 

So as a cricketer, it teaches you a lot. You grow as a cricketer, your technique improves and when you come and play international cricket again, you have some experience of playing first-class cricket and you are always in touch with the game. So playing some County games did help me,” Pujara, who played for Northamptonshire, said. 

“I played about four County matches which always helps. When I have some time in between Test matches and if I am not part of the IPL, I prefer to go and play some County matches. It gives me exposure, playing in different conditions, facing different bowlers,” he added. Pujara, though, rated the hundred he made against Sri Lanka at Colombo in the previous tour in 2015, above this effort. 

“As a batsman, you always want to perform well on challenging pitches. Especially when I got my 145, it was at SSC, that particular wicket was more challenging than this one. When you score a hundred on such wickets, it is more satisfying than this one. But when you are doing a job for the team, I always enjoy scoring hundreds,” he said.