Derbyshire keen on Pujara’s return

India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara made a nifty impression during his stint at Derbyshire at the end of last season, and the County side are keen to have him back for the 2015 season.

Pujara asked to stay in England after the Test series defeat to the hosts, and played three games for Derbyshire. He failed in the first game, but then made 90 not out and 100 not out in the final two fixtures.

Derbyshire elite performance director Graeme Welch said: “We’ve spoken to Pujara already and he seemed quite keen to come back. He integrated into the team brilliantly and I think he enjoyed the lads here.

“He wants to test himself in English conditions, so this is probably the best place for him.”

He added of the complications the IPL and India’s schedule could cause: “It’s still up in the air at the moment. We’ll have to look at their schedule and try and get somebody in for those three months that he isn’t here.

“There could be a lot of Australians hanging around because they might want to be in the country ahead of the Ashes tour. We just got to keep our ear to the ground and go from there.

“We’ll have to see where we are with the budget in terms of possibly signing a second overseas for T20. We of course want to improve our performances in that format and this could be one option.”

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