Former Australian captain Tim Paine recently opened up about how important Cheteshwar Pujara’s role was in India’s memorable 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy win. Paine said that Pujara played the most important role in that series win but people still give his credit to Rishabh Pant.
In the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, after suffering a humiliating defeat in Adelaide, India, without their regular captain Virat Kohli and several key senior players, made a spectacular comeback and won the series 2-1. On the 2020-21 Australia tour, Team India won the last Test match of the series, which was played at the Gabba ground, by three wickets, in which Rishabh Pant played the match-winning innings.
That innings of Rishabh Pant was recorded in the pages of history. Pant is considered the hero of the 2020-21 Australia vs India Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but former Australian Test captain Tim Paine has a different opinion about it. He believes that because of Cheteshwar Pujara, Team India had captured the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy.
The player who won the series for India in the last series was Cheteshwar Pujara – Tim Paine
Tim Paine said on the Grade Cricketers podcast, ‘From what I remember, a lot of people talk about Rishabh Pant, in the last series in Australia, but the man who won the series for India was Cheteshwar Pujara. He had demoralized us and our fast bowlers. He was continuously getting the ball hit on his body, but was getting up again and again. It still has its place in Test cricket.
Let us tell you that in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Pujara may not have scored a century, but he spent a long time at the crease, and tired the Australian bowlers. Pujara had scored 271 runs in the four-match Test series, of which 77 was his best score. Whereas Rishabh Pant had scored 274 runs in the series.