Mohammad Rizwan reveals how a chat with Cheteshwar Pujara helped him regain his form

Pakistan star batter, Mohammad Rizwan is currently playing for the Sussex team in the County Cricket Championship. India's Test specialist, Cheteshwar Pujara also is a part of the club in the ongoing competition. The duo made headlines after they put on a 154-run stand against Durham. Pujara went on to smash a double-hundred (203 off 334 balls) in that match, while Rizwan scored a spectacular half-century (79 off 145 balls).

However, prior to that game, Rizwan endured a lean run with the bat. The Pakistan cricketer had scores of 22, 0, and 4 in three innings before his 79-run performance. He recently stated that a piece of advice from Pujara helped him regain his form. He said that the Indian great advised him to play close to his body as the balls moves a lot in the English 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. You don’t play very close to your body in white-ball since the ball doesn’t swing or seam as much," he said while speaking to Cricwick.

"So early on here, I played away from my body and got out twice similarly. 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. I have played white-ball cricket consistently. So these are the things which he told me, and whatever he learned from me, he can tell ," he added.

Meanwhile, Pujara has been one of the division's most consistent batters thus far. The right-handed batsman has 717 runs, including two double-centuries and one century in four matches for Sussex. He is now the second-highest run-scorer in the competition.