Pujara credits first-class cricket for improvement in his game

DHAKA: India's star batter Cheteshwar Pujara credited his time spent playing first-class cricket for his success in the two-match test series against Bangladesh.

The middle-order batter scored 192 runs in the series, including a century and a fifty. He was declared the player of the series for his contribution to India's 2-0 clean-sweep victory against the hosts.

Pujara mentioned that he had been working intensively on his game while playing tons of first-class cricket. He also labelled the series a competitive one despite India winning it 2-0.

"It's been a great competitive series. I have been working hard on my game. Played a lot of First-class cricket and then worked a lot on my game, that's what helped me score these runs," said Pujara.

Underlining the importance of breaks he said that the gap between test matches allows players to have time for preparing. He also highlighted the importance of mental preparedness before a game.

"Sometimes, there is enough gap between Test matches, it helps you prepare. I think playing First-class cricket is really important for improving. You need to be mentally prepared and I believe that if you are strong mentally, and prepare well, you'll be good," expressed the right-hander.

India were in a huge spot of bother at 74/7 in the first session of the fourth day with the last recognized batting pair of Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin on the crease. However, the Indian team pulled off the chase with three wickets to spare and clinched the series 2-0.

Ravichandran Ashwin (42*) and Shreyas Iyer (29*) stitched an unbeaten 71-run partnership on the fourth day to help India win the final test of the two-match test series against Bangladesh.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz bowled superbly to take a five-wicket haul but was unable to win the test for the hosts. The test series victory was the 16th win in a row in Asia for the men in blue.