Cheteshwar Pujara has been in prime form in the current Test series against Australia but there has been no conscious effort to silence critics who have panned him for his underwhelming performance Down Under in 2014.
"When I play international cricket, I don't need to silence anyone. I just need to keep scoring runs and that is what I love to do. I don't want to get into all such things. My job is to score runs and I will keep scoring runs, whether it is home or away," Pujara said after scoring his 17th Test hundred.
However he accepted that once a player starts winning games for his country, even the critics can be kept at bay.
"Sometimes you do get criticised and you just have to accept it. But if you keep scoring runs and if India keeps winning, ultimately everybody is happy," Pujara said.
‘Could have scored 150’
Cheteshwar Pujara is not known to score at a fast clip but the slowness of the MCG track was something that bogged down even India's dogged No 3 during the first innings of the third Test.
"We have to bat like the way the wicket is behaving and what the situation is. On this pitch, every batsman has to play a lot of balls to score runs. If it were a different wicket maybe I would have scored 140-150 after playing so many deliveries. But in Test cricket it is important to read both situation and pitch when batting," said Pujara, who scored 106 off 319 balls in India's first innings total of 443/7 declared.
Pujara admitted that the pitch is extremely difficult to bat on and the runs put on board are good enough to challenge Australia.
"It is a tough pitch to score on. If we look at first two days numbers of runs scored are very less and in a way I would say that 200 in a day is a tough task, so I think we have enough runs on the board," said Pujara.