IND vs SA | Mayank Agarwal has learnt the art of conversion from domestic cricket, says Cheteshwar Pujara

Mayank Agarwal has a unique record of scoring 1000 runs in a single month, a feat that he achieved in 2017. This first-class record tells a thing or two about his temperament and willingness to bat for long periods of time. Thus him throwing away his wicket twice in Australia while batting in the 70s can be overlooked considering he was nervous due to the tour being his first series. He seems to have put those ghosts behind him, having now scored consecutive tons against South Africa, the first of which was a double century. 

"He (Agarwal) is an experienced player who has scored so many first-class runs, which has helped him a lot. And when it comes to being nervous in his 90s, he is someone who is fearless," said Pujara in a press conference, when asked about Agarwal handling himself well in the nervous ninties

Mayank knows how to convert fifties into big scores and at the same time, once he goes past hundred, he can score heavily as we saw in the last game," he added.

Pujara feels that being someone who himself scores big runs, he did not feel the need to give Agarwal a whole lot of advice, as Agarwal had learnt the art of scoring big hundreds from domestic cricket.

"That habit (for big scores) has come from first class cricket, so I didn't have to tell him much. To be honest, we were just communicating what their gameplan was.

"If there was an error in his batting, I would just tell him to play close to his body, when I thought his bat was going away. Apart from that, he is batting really well and you don't have to guide him much," the veteran batsman said.

Pujara also believes that the pitch was a good test match pitch keeping all parties involved interested. He feels that it's the kind of pitch where there is enough happening for the bowlers, but at the same time one where the batsmen will get value for their shots. He believes that it will be tough to bat in the fourth innings. He also backed the skipper's call to go in with the fifth bowler.

"It's a true pitch, where if a fast bowler is bowling well, he can also get a batsman out and if you are batsman, there is value for your shots. There was little bit of spin later on. If we have runs on the board, it won't be easy to bat in the fourth innings," he said of the pitch.

"You have to just back your instincts. If we have five bowlers on a flat pitch, you can pick 20 wickets but if you go with 4 bowlers, it becomes difficult, if there is not much assistance. Luckily there is assistance for fast bowlers and Umesh playing this game," he signed off.