Having gone to England after building a sizeable reputation for himself, thanks to his relentless streak of accumulating runs, India's new No. 3, unfairly touted as the next Rahul Dravid, has disappointed in recent weeks with his inability to get going.
There's been a steady dip in form since his arrival in England. Pujara got 38 and 55 at Trent Bridge, 28 and 43 at Lord's, 24 and 2 at Southampton and 0 and 17 at Old Trafford.
This, on the back of scores of 1, 23, 19 and 17 on the tour of New Zealand.
It isn't surprising that India's fortunes too have nosedived with Pujara's form. He along with Virat Kohli were tipped to be the batting mainstays on the tour.
Before the team's departure for England, legendary allrounder Kapil Dev had marked out Pujara as the most significant player for the series. The 26-year-old, however, has failed to stay and shape the Indian innings, aggregating a mere 207 runs in four Tests for an average of 25.87.
Pujara's reputation has been built around consistent performances, even if mostly on Rajkot belters. The Saurashtra batsman had raised expectations with his stirring run-making ability in first-class cricket itself, when he stroked two triple hundreds, and one at the U-22 level as a prelude to his international career, which saw him stroke a couple of double hundreds against England and Australia at home. Displaying enormous patience and flawless technique, Pujara evoked comparisons with Dravid, even though the youngster was yet to be tested outside the sub-continent.
The first blip, or signs of trouble, showed on the tour to New Zealand, where he managed just 60 runs in four innings. The problem, however, is, Pujara has looked good even while failing. He gets out just as he appears to be getting settled at the crease.
Skipper MS Dhoni pointed out that the early exit of the openers meant that the Rajkot-based star was being exposed to the new ball far too early. That, however, cannot be the sole reason for Pujara's struggles.
Former Bengal batsman Debu Mitra, who coached Saurashtra for the last decade, can claim to know Pujara's game fairly well. "I don't think there is anything wrong with him. This can happen to any cricketer, even Sunil Gavaskar failed in the odd series. Cricket looks easy from outside the 75 yards, but it is a dangerous game. For a batsman, it is a one-ball game. Even Virat Kohli is in bad form. Then at Old Trafford, all the batsmen failed on a track where we should've bowled first, so why is the media singling Pujara out?"
Dilip Vengsarkar, who did well abroad in his time, however, was scathing in his assessment of not just Pujara, but the entire young batting crop in India shirts.
"The techniques of all our top batsmen — Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir — have been exposed. A basic technical fault in their game is that they all defend with an angled bat against the moving ball, which results in the ball going towards the slips. I can't understand what our coach Duncan Fletcher is doing," said Vengsarkar.
Like most of his colleagues, Pujara has surrendered his wicket twice to the rather innocuous off spin of Moeen, which shows how his confidence has dipped. To make it worse, he doesn't have the DRS to bail him out of a bad review.
"One big score, and he will be a different batsman altogether," said India 'A' coach, Lalchand Rajput. "He did play well in South Africa, so it's not as if Pujara can't play well abroad.
As for doing well in England, Pujara can take a cue from Dravid, who played a season of county cricket to get used to the English conditions." With the fifth and final Test starting at The Oval on Friday, Pujara still has a chance to salvage something out of this tour — that can put the smile back on his face.
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