Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammed Rizwan has praised Cheteshwar Pujara for his focus and concentration level saying he wants to have such intense focus. Rizwan further added that Pujara’s advice to play close to the body in England has helped him in the ongoing County Championship so far.

Mohammed Rizwan and Cheteshwar Pujara are currently playing in the ongoing County Championship for Sussex. Pujara was dropped from the Indian Test squad recently but has been on a roll in County Championship and might make a comeback with his impressive outings. Pujara has smashed 717 runs from seven innings at 143.40 so far including four centuries. Rizwan has scored 136 runs so far. 

Pujara’s performance has been praised by many and Rizwan is the new name to join the list, Rizwan said that he wants to have focus and concentration levels like Pujara.

“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,” Rizwan said to Cricwick.

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

Rizwan would like to better his record of 136 runs in five innings at 27.20 so far in the County. Pujara is the leading run-scorer for the team and Rizwan revealed how the Indian batter helped him with a suggestion to score runs in tough England conditions.

“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. In white-ball, you don’t play very close to your body since the ball doesn’t swing or seam as much.” “So early on here, I played away from my body and got out twice in a similar way,” he said.

“Then I went over to meet him in the nets and I remember him saying that when we play in Asia, we force the ball to play the drive. Here, we don’t need to do that. And we need to play close to the body. So these are the things which he told me and whatever he learned from me, he can tell (laughs).”