India’s veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara has showered praise on Australia’s gun fast bowler Mitchell Starc for showing an upward swing in his improvement graph in the last two years. Pujara recalled that Starc used to concede a lot of runs in the previous two Border-Gavaskar Test series while playing in his own conditions but feels his bowling has improved by leaps and bounds.

Starc was the pick of the bowlers in the first innings of the second pink-ball Test at Adelaide against India, returning with career-best figures of 6-48. The left-arm pacer is the second-highest wicket-taker in the ongoing series, picking 14 wickets in three Test matches at an average of 22.86.

Cheteshwar Pujara said on Star Sports show Game Plan, “He has been their best bowler thus far in this series. He has improved his bowling a lot in the last one to one-and-a-half years. He has a lot of ability. If I talk about my personal experience, when he used to come to bowl in the last two series, we felt we could get runs.”

“However, now it seems like when he will come to bowl, he will pick up wickets. His accuracy has improved a lot. He is bowling very few loose deliveries. He is bowling at the stumps. Every ball is hitting the good length spot. He is getting swing. He has become a different bowler,” Pujara elaborated.

Pujara urged the Indian batters to bat cautiously in the first five overs against Starc in his first spell.

“He is looking more dangerous than (Pat) Cummins and (Josh) Hazlewood. So we will have to manage his bowling, especially with the new ball. He has taken most of his wickets in his first five overs, his first spell. So we need to bat well in the first five overs. Make him bowl the second and third spells because he gets tired,” he said.

The fourth Test match between India and Australia will be played at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground from 26th December.