Ahead of the one-off Test match against Bangladesh in Hyderabad, India’s Cheteshwar Pujara said India isn’t taking Bangladesh lightly despite having a home advantage. Putting his money behind India’s good run-of-form across formats, Pujara believes India will bring their A game up against the neighbouring rivals.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Pujara said Bangladesh won’t be finding the conditions tough to play in as they thrashed England in their own backyard later past year.
Talking about his side’s chances of claiming a win, Pujara said India has the winning momentum on their side and would like to carry that forward. The right-handed batsman then added India played a great brand of cricket last year and are in all mood to repeat the heroics this time around too.
“They have been playing well in the sub-continent. So, probably, that is one team that have done well against England. We can’t take them lightly. But, at the same time, we played very good cricket in 2016. So, probably, we would stick to the same thing. We are number one team in the world at the moment. We would like to maintain that, the way we played our cricket in 2016, we would like to repeat the same thing in 2017.”
Considering hosts big win over England in Tests, Pujara said the contest with Bangladesh would be even and that India will be committing a blunder if they happen to take them lightly. But having said that, Pujara turned the spotlight towards India claiming they would be anyway having an extra edge over the visitors, given the better team balance the side possess.
“I think it will be a fair contest. Because, when we tour Bangladesh, we have a similar experience. When we tour Bangladesh, we get similar conditions. I don’t think for them conditions will matter a lot. Whoever plays good cricket, I think they will have an opportunity to win this game. Probably, we will have the upper hand because the way we played last year in 2016, fast bowlers bowled well, the lower order continues to hit and batsmen have been batting well. One thing I believe is that if we play as a team and we play to our potential, we will have the upper hand in this game.”
Pujara having scored 836 runs in 11 matches in 2016 is hopeful to start the new year with some runs under his belt before joining the side for next Tests assignment post Champions Trophy in June.
India will be facing Bangladesh in an one-off Test in Hyderabad starting February 9 (Thursday).