Top 5 learnings for India from the New Zealand Test series

#3 Strike rate is over rated in Tests

Pujara was India’s most consistent batsman in the series

There had been inexplicable murmurs regarding Cheteshwar Pujara’s alleged inability to score at a pace, which was deemed adequate by the ‘aggressive’ think tank. He was even dropped during the West Indies tour despite his invaluable asset of negotiating an extensive amount of deliveries without any fuss, at the most important batting position in the game’s traditional format.

But, the soft-spoken Saurashtra batsman rendered those points irrelevant by ending the series as the leading run-scorer in the series with 373 runs as well as four fifty-plus scores.

With Murali Vijay’s opening partner going through the roulette, he often had to come in at the fall of an early wicket. Yet, Pujara’s calmness and appetite for runs should ram home the point that strike-rate often does not matter in Tests.