Legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar has put his weight behind under-fire Cheteshwar Pujara, who has been dropped from the Test squad for the upcoming two-match Test series against the West Indies. While veteran batters like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ajinkya Rahane have been backed by the national selectors, Pujara was shown the exit doors.
Pujara recently returned with scores of 14 and 27 in the World Test Championship final against Australia and thus could not deliver the goods in a big game, which the team lost by 209 runs.
In the last two years, Pujara scored 928 runs in 17 Test matches at an average of 32. Furthermore, the selectors have picked youngsters like Shubman Gill, Yashavi Jaiswal, and Ruturaj Gaikwad for the Test team.
“Why has he been dropped? Why has he been made the scapegoat for our batting failures? He has been a loyal servant of Indian cricket,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“But because he does not have millions of followers on platforms who will make a noise in case he gets dropped, so you drop him. That is something beyond my understanding. What is the criteria of dropping him and keeping the others who failed? I do not know because nowadays, there is no media interaction with the selection committee chairman, where you could ask these questions.”
In fact, Pujara was India’s second-highest scorer with 928 runs in 32 innings at an average of 32 with one century and six half-centuries in the previous WTC 21-23 cycle.
Gavaskar has backed Pujara to make a return to Test cricket and feels he still has a lot to offer to Indian cricket.
“He has been playing county cricket. So, he has played a lot of red-ball cricket, so he knows what it is about,” Gavaskar said when asked if Pujara can make a comeback.
“Today, people can play till they are 39-40. There’s nothing wrong, they’re all very fit; as long as you are producing runs and taking wickets, I do not think age should be a factor. Clearly only one man has been singled out, while the others who have failed…to me, the batting failed. Apart from (Ajinkya) Rahane, the batting completely failed. Why Pujara has been made the fall guy is something the selectors need to explain.”
Moreover, Gavaskar also questioned the value of the Ranji Trophy as Sarfaraz Khan has been ignored by the national selectors despite performing consistently in the last three seasons.
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