Veteran Indian cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara has been left out of India’s recently announced squad for the two-match Test series against the West Indies. Fans and former players have questioned Pujara’s omission from the Test squad, arguing why he has been singled out and questioning the selection criteria.

The 35 year old batter is probably in the last leg of his career and fans have been wondering if the drop from the test team is the end of the line for Pujara. However, like he has done throughout his career, Pujara let his bat do the talking for him in a video posted on Twitter on Saturday. 

Pujara posted a video of him batting along with a two emojis. In the 9 second video, the veteran batter can be seen leaving the balls outside his off stump, defending them and glacing them off his legs in his signature style. 

Pujara was part of India’s playing XI against Australia in the WTC Final 2023. However, it was been widely speculated that there will be some changes to the Test side following their disastrous performance against the Kangaroos at The Oval. The Indian team failed to pass the 300-run mark in both innings of the Test match, eventually losing the match by 209 runs.

Apart from Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur, no other Indian batsman scored a half-century in either innings. Pujara scored a total of 41 runs in his 2 innings of the Test match.

However, Pujara has not been at the top of his game for some time. The 35-year-old has scored 1,455 runs at an average of 26.69 in the 52 innings he has played since 2020, including 1 century and 11 half centuries.

Despite this, Pujara has found a supporter in former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar. Gavaskar has argued that Pujara has been a loyal servant of Indian cricket and has been made a scapegoat for India’s batting failures.

 

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Updated: 25 Jun 2023, 09:39 AM IST



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