WI Tour: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee has formally confirmed the teams for the multi-format series against the West Indies, which is set to take place in July. Following the news, legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar criticised the think tank for removing Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara from the next tour.
Gavaskar highlighted the Indian team’s batsmen’s poor performances following their recent defeat in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 final against Australia. The former cricketer felt that Pujara was being made the scapegoat for Team India’s batting shortcomings when there were others in the setup who did not up to the occasion in the WTC final.
“Clearly, only one man was singled out, while others failed as well. Batting failed for me. Apart from Ajinkya Rahane, who scored 89 and 46 in both innings, no one else scored. Why is he [Cheteshwar Pujara] being dropped? Why is he being blamed for our batting struggles? He has been a committed servant of Indian cricket. Because he doesn’t have millions of followers on any site, who would make a fuss if he is dropped?” Gavaskar stated to India Today.
“Do you mean you dropped him? That is incomprehensible. What criteria are there for removing him while maintaining the others that failed? He has played county cricket. He’s played a lot of red-ball cricket, so he understands what it’s all about. People can play till they are 40 or 39 years old. There’s nothing wrong with them because they’re all in great shape. I don’t think age should be a factor as long as you’re scoring runs and taking wickets,” he continued.
Pujara struggled with the bat against Australia in the WTC Final.
In terms of Pujara’s performances in the WTC final, the right-hander only managed 14 and 27 runs in the lone Test at The Oval in London. Meanwhile, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Mukesh Kumar have been named to the Test squad for the upcoming visit.
India’s Test team is as follows: 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),
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