Ajay Jadeja has applauded Cheteshwar Pujara for working hard which eventually gave him success at the international level. However, his comments came as Pujara scored an unbeaten 102 off 130 balls in India’s second innings of the first Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram. His knock, along with a maiden Test century by Shubman Gill, helped India set a massive 513-run fourth-innings target for the hosts and eventually won by 188 runs.

While reviewing the game on Sony Sports, Ajay Jadeja said: “Don’t forget he had been dropped two Tests back and was out for a series. The selectors had rejected him and the same selectors got him back. This guy has always shown in his career, right from his under-15 days, that struggle is his name. He has had operations on both his knees, it is very difficult after that. This guy kept on doing the difficult tasks and he has so much love for the game that wherever you play him, he doesn’t get out. He is not fond of playing shots but of scoring runs.”

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Ajay Jadeja continued: “No one has given as much solidity as him. He and Virat Kohli have had parallel careers, both have played in the same era, he is not too far behind in terms of runs, attractiveness is probably not that much.”If you see his contribution over the last 10 years, he has done one inch more than what was in his control.”

However, Cheteshawar Pujara has smashed 6984 runs which came at an average of 44.76 in 97 Tests, while Kohli has scored 8094 runs at an average of 49.35 in 103 games as well. Meanwhile, Pujara scored 90 off 203 balls in the first innings against Bangladesh as well.

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“He made the best of the opportunity. If you analyze his knock, he hit 11 fours when he scored 90 and 13 fours when he scored the hundred. It is not that he increased the number of fours and sixes. The game situation was such that when he was playing, he was getting singles, so not too many dots were added,” Ajay Jadeja concluded.