Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the selectors for dropping senior player Cheteshwar Pujara from the Test squad for the upcoming series against West Indies. Pujara’s absence has become one of the biggest talking points after India’s squad for the two-Test series against the West Indies in July was announced.
Cheteshwar Pujara Has Been Dropped From Indian Squad
For the unversed, Pujara was the unofficial vice-captain of the Indian team, after KL Rahul was dropped because of an injury, and was in form heading into the World Test Championship 2023 Final. However, he struggled to score runs in the WTC Final 2023, scoring 14 and 27.
He was eventually dropped from the team. He has been replaced by the young guns Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal. One of these two batters will surely get an opportunity to make a debut in the first Test against West Indies.
Sunil Gavaskar Slammed The Selectors
Meanwhile, speaking to Sports Today, the former Indian captain said that Pujara has been made the scapegoat for Team India’s defeat in the ICC final. He said:
“Why has he been made the scapegoat for our batting failures? He has been a loyal servant of Indian cricket, a quiet and able achiever. But because he doesn’t have millions of followers on whatever platforms who would make a noise in case he gets dropped, you drop him? That is something beyond understanding,”
He added:
“What is the criteria for dropping him and keeping the others who failed. I don’t know because nowadays there is no media interaction with the selection committee chairman or whoever where you could actually ask these questions,”
Further, Gavaskar said that age should not be criteria if that is the reason why Pujara is dropped. He also pointed out that Pujara wasn’t the only batter who failed to score big in the WTC Final. He said:
“Yes he has been playing County cricket, he knows what the red ball is all about,” said Gavaskar about Pujara. “Nowadays players can play till they are 39 or 40, there is nothing wrong with that. They are all very fit and as long as you are producing runs or taking wickets, I don’t think age should be a factor. Clearly only one man has been singled out while the others also failed. To me, the batting failed. Apart from Ajinkya Rahane, there was nobody who got any runs. So why Pujara has been made the fall guy is something the selectors need to explain,”
Check out the Test and ODI Squad announced by the BCCI for India vs West Indies:
TEST Squad for IND vs WI: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.
India’s ODI Squad for India vs West Indies: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (VC), Shardul Thakur, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar.
