 |
| file |
Sunil Gavaskar has lashed out at the Indian selectors for leaving Cheteshwar Pujara out of the Test team for the upcoming two-match Test series against the West Indies. Gavaskar criticized the selectors saying that apart from Ajinkya Rahane, the entire batting unit failed against Australia in the World Test Championship final but only Pujara was dropped.
WTC Final 2023 was very bad for Pujara and he scored 14 and 27 runs in both innings. He played county cricket for Sussex before this crucial match but failed to replicate his form in the Indian jersey. Gavaskar feels that Pujara can still make a comeback in future as he plays county and domestic cricket. Gavaskar told Sports Today, "Yeah, he's playing county cricket. He's played a lot of red-ball cricket, so he knows how to come back. People can play till they're 40 or 39. There's something in it." Not wrong either because they are all very fit. As long as you are scoring runs and taking wickets, I don't think age should be a big issue."
Gavaskar said Indian skipper Rohit Sharma (15 and 43), Virat Kohli (14 and 49) and Shubman Gill (13 and 18) also failed on big occasions against Australia but only Pujara was shown the door.
He said, “Clearly, only one person has been dropped while others also failed. For me, batting failed. Of course, apart from Ajinkya Rahane, who scored 89 and 46 in both the innings, nobody else really scored."
He further hit out at the selectors and said that just because Pujara has fewer followers than other players the selection committee will not face the same backlash on social media after dropping him.
The veteran cricketer said, "Why was Pujara dropped? Why is he being made a scapegoat for our batting failure? He has been loyal to Indian cricket. Because he doesn't have lakhs of followers on any platform, which makes him Won't you make a noise if you are thrown out?"
