'Strike rate is absolute nonsense': Dinesh Karthik says Pujara wins matches for India

Team India wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik while complimenting Cheteshwar Pujara particularly his show against Australia also felt that people should not be bothered about the Indian Test specialist's strike rate.

Dinesh Karthik

Pujara might not have scored much in Down Under but he batted for a long, long time and helped India record a historic series win early this year.

"I feel this strike rate is absolute nonsense. If you take the number of Test matches that have gotten over in four days – it is about 80-82%. So, why to bother about strike rate, let him play at whatever strike rate he wants to play, as long as he can win Test matches for India," Karthik said.

"Now, Pujara, why hasn't he scored runs? You have to understand if you take the last match, he was playing against ranked turners (against England back home), where the team was finding it hard to score 200 runs and to expect Pujara to score a 100 is unfair," the Kolkata Knight Riders player told Star Sports on the eve of the WTC final

"We have played under tough conditions… If you take that Sydney Test match, the number of blows that he (Pujara) just took. Pat Cummins (KKR teammate) was talking to me about that in the IPL – saying the difference between India drawing the Test match and losing it was one man, Cheteshwar Pujara. The amount of time that he batted, he was giving him body blows," Cummins recollected to Karthik.

"If you had put any of the other Indian batsmen at that stage of the day, early on when there is probably a little bit of juice, they would have struggled. There was a good chance we would have capitulated on that game. For us to not cross that hurdle, to get to Brisbane unscathed, the reason was Pujara in a big way," said Karthick who will be commenting on the WTC final match.

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