Input from Cheteshwar Pujara would be invaluable for Indian batters, says Sunil Gavaskar ahead of the WTC championship game

Sunil Gavaskar, a former captain, said Cheteshwar Pujara may help his Indian colleagues before the World Test Championship final against Australia since he played substantially in the English County Championship on Wednesday.

Pujara’s contributions might be quite helpful given his experience as a captain and understanding of the game (at Sussex), particularly against Australian batter Steve Smith, a member of his county team.

From June 7 to 11, the WTC final will take place at the Oval in London.

The fact that he has been around will imply that he has seen how The Oval’s pitch has been acting.

He may not have played at The Oval and may now be in Sussex, which is not too far from London, but he will have maintained tabs on events and his insights will be essential to the batting unit or even the captaincy, according to Gavaskar in an interview with Star Sports.

As for the Oval pitch, “He will have the captains here, and don’t forget he has also been captaining the team, so he definitely will have worked out quite a few strategies seeing as the Australian Steve Smith is his teammate at the moment,”

In addition, Gavaskar recommended the Indian batsmen to play as late as possible since they would need to improve their bat speed after the IPL before the WTC final.

“I believe they will assess their bat speed. They’ll need to do that while transitioning from T20, where the bat speed is really quick, to Test cricket, where the bat speed has to be much more controlled,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.

Additionally, he stressed the need of hitters playing as late as possible in English circumstances in order to allow for swing and prevent the error of reaching out for the ball.

“They’ll need to play in England as late as possible to give the swing time to work, and they shouldn’t reach out for the ball as often as they should after playing on excellent wickets.

“Wherever you play, you prefer to play across the line on excellent surfaces, not necessarily with half volleys, but in England those deliveries may travel just that little bit more. Therefore, I believe they are the things a batter has to be aware of.

To enable the Dukes ball to swing, he instructed the bowlers to produce longer pitches.

For the bowlers to be able to see movement after pitching as well as in the air, you’ll need to deliver a fresh ball at a considerably broader length as a bowling unit.

Gavaskar highlighted the difficulties India will encounter while playing in English-speaking environments.

“I believe that the circumstances in England are difficult because, to begin with, we are used to playing with the sun on our backs. When you play in England, it’s not uncommon for there to be no sun, a little bit of cloud cover and a little bit of a chill in the air, so you sometimes wear a sweater.

“That’s something that you know, Indian players, West Indian players, and Sri Lankan players are not really used to, so that can be just a little bit of a dampener, little sort of light, but you just feel little bit encumbered by that,” the author said.

“So, there is one issue, and since the ball likes to swing in these conditions—not only after pitching, which doesn’t happen in India—it sometimes takes some getting accustomed to the swing in the air.

People often advise playing two or three warm-up matches before travelling abroad since they will give you a better understanding of what to expect while playing in a test match, he said.