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Cheteshwar Pujara's ability to bat hours on end, scoring massive amounts of runs, has become his signature. He has played the longest innings by an Indian in Tests, and his tally of 1611 runs last season is a national record in first-class cricket. So when he goes through a lean patch, questions are raised. In August, after the end of a productive series against Sri Lanka, Pujara went to play domestic cricket in England. He returned home with a top score of 34 in seven innings, and wasn't his usual self in the Ranji Trophy either, where his first two innings yielded 35 and 13. "Sometimes, people expect a lot out of me because I have the habit of scoring big runs." Pujara told DNA. "The expectation is that I should score a hundred every second or third innings. It is difficult to always fulfil that." Pre-season runs are a vital part of Pujara's success. Upon his return from a difficult tour of the West Indies in 2016, when he was dropped from the XI, he struck 166 and 256 not out in two Duleep Trophy matches. They were vital innings, he felt, and paved the way to his becoming the highest run-getter in the world in 2016-17. Now, with two weeks to go for the home Tests against Sri Lanka, Pujara made his 12th double-hundred, another national record. He followed up with an innings of 182. "The moment I start scoring big runs, as a batsman, my rhythm comes back and my concentration improves," Pujara said. "Everything looks good. So, it is a perfect start before I head into the Sri Lanka series." 
Pujara said that his low scores prior to his back-to-back hundreds weren't due to a lack of form. "I was playing on some tough pitches in England. All the matches were on challenging pitches and most of the games were low-scoring ones. I accepted my failures and I did learn so many things out of it.
"It wasn't that I was going through a bad phase or that I wasn't timing the ball well," Pujara said. "It was just a time where I had to stay patient. I was playing on tough pitches and if I get a good ball, just accept it and learn new things, what are the things I can still improve on and then start scoring runs again. "When I came back to India, in the first game, I had a little bit of jet lag but I was batting well and got good start and got out playing a bad shot for 35 [against Haryana]. Even in the next game [against Jammu & Kashmir], I looked in good touch but I made a mistake and got out [for 13]. So, overall I knew I was batting well." The gap between the end of the Sri Lanka series and the start of the tour of South Africa is short. India play their last match at home on December 24 and the Cape Town Test begins on January 5. Pujara, however, is usually picked only for Test cricket and the last Test against Sri Lanka ends on December 6. So he will have more time to prepare for South Africa "When you travel abroad, you have to alter a few things," Pujara said. "Obviously, the basic things remain the same. You have to have different preparations depending on the country you are visiting. If you are going to South Africa, there are certain things that I know that I need to do to perform well there, and I will work on them. I have played enough cricket in England that when we go there [in July-August 2018], I know the things I need to do there."
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