Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan has said he has had a nice stint with India veteran Cheteshwar Pujara, his county teammate at Sussex, saying that the two cricketers share a laugh and enjoy a good cordial relationship on and off the field.

Rizwan and Pujara batting together for Sussex has delighted a majority of cricket fans even as India and Pakistan are not playing bilateral cricket anymore. The two batters shared a 150-plus stand for Sussex against Durham and Pujara was seen celebrating the Pakistan wicketkeeper’s fifty during the match.

Pujara has been in incredible form in county championships division 2. Having dropped from the Test side for the Sri Lanka series at home, Pujara went to England to regain his form. The senior batter has certainly made a strong case for himself by scoring two hundreds and as many double hundreds so far for Sussex.

“…As far as myself and Pujara are concerned, I didn’t feel anything strange. And hopefully, if you ask him, his answer will be the same as mine. Although I do share a laugh with him and tease him (laughs) and everyone in the team knows this,” Rizwan told Cricwick website.

PUJARA 2ND ON MY LIST

Furthermore, Rizwan said he rates Pujara among the top 3 when it comes to concentration levels and that he wishes to emulate the India batting star by learning from him.

“He is a very nice and loving guy. And his concentration and focus too… If you get a chance to learn something, you should do it.

“In terms of concentration levels and I told this to the coaches here too. In my whole career, the players with most focus, concentration are Younis bhai, Fawad Alam and his (Pujara’s).

“Pujara is second on my list and Fawad Alam on three in terms of pure concentration and focus. I rate these three players very highly,” he said.

Shedding light on their conversations about the game, Rizwan said Pujara had given him a piece of advice when it comes to switching from white-ball to red-ball cricket.

Pujara has been a red-ball specialist for India over the years. He landed an IPL contract with Chennai Super Kings last year but did not play a game for the 4-time champions. Pujara did not find bidders at the IPL 2022 mega auction but the Saurashtra batter certainly seems to have caught the selectors’ attention.

“…in terms of the focus and concentration levels, there is a time when that starts dropping low … I will try to figure how these three players have so intense focus and concentration. I keep on talking with Younis bhai, I couldn’t talk much with Fawad recently on this.

“And with Pujara, I had a chat with him after I got out early. He told me a few things and one of them was to play close to the body. And as everyone knows, we have been playing white-ball cricket consistently over the past few years and play a bit away from our body,” Rizwan said.