Former West Indies batsman Brian Lara has advised India’s number three Cheteshwar Pujara to raise his batting strike rate. Lara believes Pujara bats too slow and should consider addressing it.

Pujara has always been on the receiving end for batting too slow in Test cricket. He was also dropped from the Test squad back in 2017 for the same. He, though, silences his critics over the years with some sensational old-school batting.

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Speaking on Hotstar’s show ‘Follow The Blues’, Lara said: “Pujara, definitely for me, I mean as a batsman, I am not the same as a player, that ability to be so patient and score at such a low strike rate.

“So, for me, if I was a coach or if I was someone that wanted Pujara to improve, I would try to create a lot more shots and try to score a strike rate that is more beneficial to him and the team.”

However, Lara had some other views when India defeated Australia in the Test series, where Pujara ended up scoring runs but consumed too many balls for them.

“Strike rate talk are overrated. There are times when balls faced matter a lot more than runs scored,” he had said.

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Meanwhile, Lara feels Pujara’s batting still help India to achieve success in the past and that is why he is the mainstay of the Indian batting order.

“He does the job, and I know the job he does, but I just feel that when you bat that slowly, there are a lot of momentum swings in your innings and you allow the bowlers so many deliveries at yourself, even before you get to three figures that you are going to find yourself coming up short a lot of times,” said Lara.

Pujara stroked back in form during the second innings of the Lord’s Test match, where he scored 45 runs to help India revive their fate in the match.