Bring on pace and bounce: India's Pujara

Mar 23, 2017 - 6:30 PM India aren't spooked by the prospect of a pace shootout in their Test series decider against Australia, with Cheteshwar Pujara saying his side has proven themselves on all sorts of pitches.

Dharamsala is among the most pace-friendly venues in India and curator Sunil Chauhan vowed earlier this week his pitch would behave normally, noting "it will stay fast and bouncy".

Australia were noticeably buoyed when they trained at the venue on Thursday. The centre strip almost resembled an Australian deck; there was a bit of grass, no cracks and no dust.

Pujara, who turned the drawn third Test on its head with a masterful knock of 202, rejected the idea that the wicket could help the visitors take control of the game through gun pacemen Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins.

If the pitch remains as is it will be a major boost to Australia's hopes of recording their second Test series win in India since 1969. Hazlewood suspected it could look a lot different at the toss.

"We have played a lot of cricket, even in Dharamsala. We have played enough first-class cricket, we know the conditions," Pujara said.

"It looks like a good wicket. I think

"We will just try and focus on things which want to focus on, rather than worrying about how the wicket will play.

"We have played enough cricket on different pitches throughout the season, so I don't think wicket will matter a lot to us."

Pujara added his side were "very confident" they would prevent Australia recording their second Test series win in India since 1969.

The right-hander disagreed with Australia captain Steve Smith's claim that the visitors boast all of the momentum after their stonewall in Ranchi.

"Apart from the first Test match, we have played very good cricket," Pujara said.

"They scored 450 and we were able to score more than 600 (during the third Test), and they were four down at lunch.

"We had a chance of winning the game by an innings.

"We definitely had the upper hand in the last game ... we had to bat once and they had to bat twice."

Source: AAP