With India failing to win the ICC World Test Championship final for the second time in a row, the BCCI selectors took a big call in its aftermath by dropping the seasoned Cheteshwar Pujara for the West Indies tour.
Pujara was one of the several India batters who failed to step up as Australia beat India to win the WTC title last month. However, the veteran was the only big name who got the axe as he returned to domestic cricket with Duleep Trophy, hitting a century.
This is the second time in just over a year that Pujara has lost his place in the Test squad – he was also dropped after the South Africa tour of 20-21-22 where India suffered a 1-2 defeat.
With the ‘transition’ being the buzzword as BCCI selectors start building a team for the future giving more chances to youngsters, the legendary Harbhajan Singh has put out a contrasting view, claiming India haven’t shown enough respect to Pujara who has been quietly doing the ‘dirty work’ to help others around him flourish.
“I have a lot of respect for Cheteshwar Pujara for what he has achieved,” Harbhajan told news agency PTI. “He has been an unsung hero of the Indian team for many years now. He has been one of those pillars of strength for India, doing the dirty work of hanging in there, making sure other batters got their comfort.”
“I believe he needs to be given a bit more respect than what he has been given and the way he was chucked out of the team was a surprise for me. Because he isn’t the only one not scoring runs. There are others as well who play in that same team who are scoring runs at same average,” he added.
‘Normal Test Cricket’
With England regaling the world with their aggressive brand of Test cricket and the rest of their opponents trying to play catch up, Pujara has kept showing faith in the tried and tested approach in longest format.
Not that he hasn’t tried to up his scoring rate but that’s against his natural game which at times has proved to be detrimental.
The Indian team has in the past spoken to Pujara about his apparent low strike-rate but Harbhajan says in conditions where batting is slightly difficult, the team needs someone who can play Test cricket the normal way.
“In case of Pujara, we keep hearing about his strike-rate of scoring runs in Tests but because of that strike-rate, the wickets remain intact and that’s a huge contribution” the 43-year-old said.
“So you have to see which guy is contributing what. You need to see how much the team needs him. In my opinion, the team still needs him. When you go abroad (SENA countries), you need one such batter as you can’t have everyone playing strokes all the time. You need someone who plays normal Test cricket, just like Chesteshwar Pujara,” he added.
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