Sunil Gavaskar said that Cheteshwar Pujara has been made a scapegoat after India’s batting failed in the WTC Final.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s absence was one of the big talking points after India’s squad for the two-Test series against the West Indies in July was announced. It has been speculated that Yashasvi Jaiswal could be taking up the No.3 spot that Pujara made his own over the last decade.
However, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar feels that this was a chance for the selectors to rest a number of senior players give chances to more younger players and that Pujara has been made a “scapegoat” by dropping him after India’s largely forgettable performance with the bat against Australia in the World Test Championship final.
“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,” said Gavaskar on Sports Today.
Gavaskar lamented the fact that questions cannot be asked of selectors as there was no press conference in which they announced the squad. “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,” he said.
The former India captain, widely rated among the most successful opening batters in the history of Test cricket, said that age should not be a criteria if that is the reason why Pujara is dropped. He also pointed that Pujara was not the only Indian batter who failed to score big in the WTC final, which India lost to Australia by 209 runs.
Pujara fell for 14 and 27 runs in the two innings. While he was bowled leaving the ball in the first innings, he was caught behind while trying an uncharacteristic upper cut shot in the second. However, Ajinkya Rahane was the only player who could go past 50 runs in the match and India’s top four was blown away within the first 20 overs of the first innings for just 71 runs.