Indian Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar is not happy with the selection committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) snubbing Cheteshwar Pujara from the Team India squad for West Indies series. The multi-format series is scheduled to be played in July.
Sunil Gavaskar opens up on Cheteshwar Pujara being excluded from the squad
Gavaskar noted the poor performances by the batters of the Indian team after their recent failure in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 final against Australia. The former cricketer was of the opinion that Pujara was being made the ‘scapegoat’ for team India’s batting failures when there were others in the setup, who did not rise up to the occasion in the WTC final.
“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. 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?” Gavaskar told India Today.
Pujara had a poor performance with the bat against Australia in the WTC Final
Rhe right-hander could only manage to compile scores of 14 and 27 runs in the solitary Test at The Oval in London. Meanwhile, the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Kumar have been selected in the Test setup for the forthcoming tour.
“I mean, you dropped him? That is beyond understanding. What is the criteria for dropping him and keeping the others who failed? He has been playing county cricket. He has played a lot of red-ball cricket, so he knows what it is about. People can play till they are 40 or 39. There is nothing wrong because they are all very fit. As long as you are scoring the runs and taking wickets, I don’t think age should be a factor,” Gavaskar added.
India’s Test squad:
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk), Navdeep Saini
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