Cheteshwar Pujara described the second Test as ‘evenly balanced’ but stressed that India needs to bat well before exerting pressure on England.
“Overall if you see it is evenly balanced, we need to bat well (on Sunday). The wicket is begun to deteriorate a bit so we can get them out. It is difficult to say what total we can defend but it won’t be easy for them,” Pujara said here on Saturday.
India’s No.3 felt that Murali Vijay and the lower-order will hold the key.
“Vijay has shown tremendous patience. He and M.S. (Dhoni) are batting well and with (Stuart) Binny and (Ravindra) Jadeja to come, we cannot forget Bhuvneshwar (Kumar) as well, so we do have batting and if we score runs, then we can do well,” Pujara said.
Asked about his dismissal, Pujara replied: “At times, you get good balls and you get out. I am happy with the way I am batting this series.
“But I should have left that ball today. The bounce is variable, when I was batting, some balls kept low and some were kicking.”
Meanwhile Liam Plunkett hoped that England will get to chase “just a little.”
“I wanted to bowl in that off-stump channel,” the fast bowler said when probed about his dismissals of Pujara and Virat Kohli.
