Former Indian head coach WV Raman has slammed the national selectors for dropping Cheteshwar Pujara from the upcoming tour of the West Indies. Pujara had returned with scores of 14 and 27 in the World Test Championship final against Australia and thus failed to deliver for the team in a big game.
In fact, the SS Das-led selection panel picked as many as four openers in Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Ruturaj Gaikwad for the two-match Test series against the Windies.
In the last two years, Pujara has scored 928 runs in 17 Test matches at an average of 32 and he is India’s second-highest run-getter for the team during this period.
“The problem is that they have picked four possible openers, and they have dropped Pujara, which is another bone of contention. A cricketer like Pujara has done a lot for Indian cricket, and he has been instrumental for India winning both at home and abroad on quite a few occasions,” Raman told former India opener Aakash Chopra on the latter’s YouTube channel.
Raman is not at all impressed with the selectors’ call to drop Cheteshwar Pujara as the veteran right-hander was also promoted to the vice-captaincy role in the recent past.
“He is a gritty customer. He was even elevated to vice-captaincy quite recently but a failure in the WTC final, he finds that he is left out in the cold. I think this is one decision that has not gone down well with many people, and I, personally, as well, I am not for it,” he added.
Pujara has played 103 Test matches for India, scoring 7195 runs at an average of 43.61. The right-hander had played an instrumental role in series wins in Australia on the 2018-19 and 2020-21 tours.
“He deserves to be treated properly. In the event, if they think it’s the end of Pujara, he could have been given a better exit, but that’s how things happen sometimes, and this is not the first case again. There are a lot of precedences as far as this kind of treatment is concerned.”
Raman highlighted the selectors should have made it clear that who is going to bat at one down on the West Indies tour in the absence of Pujara.
“The presumption is that out of the four openers, they would probably utilise one at No. 3. Whether it’s Gill or Ruturaj Gaikwad remains to be seen. That is once again not explicitly stated, and that again creates a little bit of a grey area for people who are keen to know things,” he added.
India will next take on West Indies in two Test matches, three ODIs, and five T20Is.
