What you get from Pujara you will not get from Pant: Aakash Chopra on Virat Kohli’s intent statement

The Indian skipper Virat Kohli said that they will reassess the situation and might look to make a few changes in their Test team after they lost the World Test Championship final against New Zealand. Kohli’s comments were speculated to be for Cheteshwar Pujara, who played slow knocks in both the innings of WTC Final.

Pujara failed to rotate the strike at regular intervals and it did put the pressure on the shoulders of other batsmen. Kohli wants a more aggressive approach from his batsmen as India had scored at almost two runs/over in both innings.

The Indian team did let the team down in the big final as they were skittled out for 217 and 170 runs. Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra feels Kohli’s comments were neither for Rahane and Pujara.

Aakash Chopra said while talking on his YouTube Channel, “I have got no doubt in my mind that the England series will go well for Rahane and Pujara but everyone has their own style of playing. We must respect that what you get from Pujara, you will not get from Pant and what you get from Rahane, you will not get from Kohli.”

“Let’s wait and watch. I don’t think he is singling out people, that Pujara or Rahane played slowly. Maybe he is just talking about a different frame of mind which might have been there in the dressing room, which may not have been that positive. I don’t think he was talking about Pujara and Rahane.”

Chopra also questioned what is intent? It is crucial for the batsmen to play according to the match situation and one should not look to play his natural game all the time. Pant played a reckless shot in the second dig despite being settled and it was poor intent from the southpaw.

“What is intent? Colin de Grandhomme also shows intent, he comes and starts slogging, is that the right intent? Pant also showed intent in the second innings but was that the right intent?”

“Rohit Sharma was playing defensively but I thought it was positive intent. Rishabh Pant was playing with the aggressive intent but it was probably not the right intent from the Indian team’s perspective.”