Is this end of the road in the Test career of Cheteshwar Pujara? Not yet, feels renowned commentator Harsha Bhogle.
35-year-old Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped from India’s Test squad for the 2-Test series in West Indies in July which will kick-start India’s 2023/25 WTC cycle.
For over a decade, Pujara had been India’s rock in the middle-order and was a significant contributor to a number of wins, most memorably the two-Test series wins in Australia. However, his form over the past couple of years had been dodgy. Since 2022, he averaged 36 in 10 Test matches, with his lone century in this period coming against Bangladesh.
Pujara had been dropped from the Test side in 2022, but made a comeback on the back of a mighty County Championship season. However, his scores of 14 and 27 in the WTC Final 2023 against Australia, his age of 35 saw the selectors move on from the veteran batsman; plus his style of batting perhaps also influenced the selectors’ decision as they imbued new and young faces in Jaiswal and Gaikwad in the Test squad.
Harsha Bhogle feels Cheteshwar Pujara can still make a comeback
Many believe that this dropping from the side could well mean curtains on Cheteshwar’s Test career, a 103 Test matches career, spanning 14 years.
Senior commentator Bhogle took to Twitter to write some words for Cheteshwar Pujara, however, Bhogle pointed out that Ajinkya Rahane made his comeback recently, the same way Pujara could also come back in the Test side.
“It has been a fabulous career, he was at the heart of the two great series wins in Australia in 2018/21, but I am not writing a Pujara obit yet. We almost wrote one for Rahane and he was India’s best batter in the WTC final. And is now the vice-captain. But yes, the Pujara decision means the lens will be on an under-performing batting side,” Harsha Bhogle tweeted.
It has been a fabulous career, he was at the heart of the two great series wins in Australia in 2018/21, but I am not writing a Pujara obit yet. We almost wrote one for Rahane and he was India's best batter in the WTC final. And is now the vice-captain. But yes, the Pujara…
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) June 23, 2023
India’s Test squad for WI tour: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.
