Vaibhav Tripathi
Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar strongly criticized the selectors’ decision to omit Cheteshwar Pujara from the Test squad for the upcoming series against the West Indies. Gavaskar highlighted the collective struggle of the batting unit, excluding Ajinkya Rahane, during the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia.
Pujara and Umesh Yadav, among the senior players, bore the brunt of the team’s underwhelming performance at the Oval.
During the summit clash, the seasoned batters- Rohit Sharma (15 and 43) and Virat Kohli (14 and 49), also struggled to make an impact. Despite having prepared for the final by playing county cricket for Sussex, Pujara couldn’t replicate his form when representing India. Batting at number 3 position, Pujara managed scores of 14 and 27 in the two innings.
“Clearly, only one man has been singled out while others also failed. To me, the batting failed. Apart from Ajinkya Rahane, of course, in both innings, he got 89 and 46, nobody else really got runs,” he told Sports Today.
“Why is he [Cheteshwar Pujara] dropped then? Why is he being made the scapegoat for our batting failures? He has been a servant of Indian cricket, a loyal servant. Because he doesn’t have millions of followers on whatever platforms who would make a noise in case he gets dropped?,” he added.