In an interaction with Sports Today, Gavaskar said, “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,”

“Clearly only one man has been singled out while the others also failed. To me, the batting failed (in WTC final). Apart from Ajinkya Rahane, there was nobody who got any runs. So why Pujara has been made the fall guy is something the selectors need to explain,” Gavaskar added 

The former India opening batter also questioned the criteria for dropping Pujara while keeping other players in the team. Gavaskar argued that the current generation of players are very fit and can play till the age of 39 or 40 as long as they are scoring runs or taking wickets.

Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped from India’s squad for the two-Test series against the West Indies in July. Young openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal have been called up for the series, with one of them expected to take Pujara’s place at No 3.

India lost the World Cup final to Australia by 209 runs. Pujara scored a total of 41 runs in the two innings of the Test match. He scored 14 runs in the first innings and 27 runs in the second. Meanwhile, most of India’s batters also struggled to find their footing in the swinging conditions at The Oval, with the team scoring just 296 and 234 runs in the two innings of the Test match.

Updated: 24 Jun 2023, 11:05 AM IST