India’s Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara will be playing for Saurashtra in the Vijay Hazare quarter-final game against Baroda at the Feroz Shah Kotla. If Saurashtra doesn’t progress further, this knockout game could well be the last competitive match for him ahead of his stint with Yorkshire in the upcoming county season.

Talking about the same, Cheteshwar said, “I am looking forward to the season ahead. I had played with them in the 2015 season when we won the County Championship. It’s a fantastic set of players with a good bunch of professionals.”

Also read: Pujara is looking forward the county season for the upcoming England tour

Apart from Pujara, Yorkshire will also have players like Joe Root and Kane Williamson, making it a heavy-duty batting line-up. Pujara, who had endured a grueling Test series against South Africa, said the experience will encourage him for the host of international tours lined up later this year. He explained, “Playing Division 1 has its advantages. I will be playing against Middlesex (Lord’s), Warwickshire (Birmingham) and Surrey (Oval) in away games, where India will play Test matches. So I will get a fair idea about the pitches and conditions.”

It’s a realistic decision considering that Pujara would have been out of action after the Vijay Hazare Trophy and even he has no IPL contract as well. He said that not having an IPL deal was to do with “public perceptions”. In his Indian jersey, Pujara has toured England only once, during the 2014 tour, where he had a rough patch, scoring 129 runs from 8 innings in four Tests.

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The county experience in the past four years could help him improve his game in England. Going forward, he reckoned that both Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were the best bet in Test cricket. despite the exploits of India’s wrist spinners – Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav – both of whom have tied the South Africans in knots with their cleverness in the ongoing limited-overs series.

Talking about the spinners, Pujara said, “It will be difficult if you can’t pick up the variation from wrists. If you can’t differentiate Chahal’s googly from his flipper, then there’s trouble. You have to have an understanding which way the ball would turn.”