WI vs IND | Cheteshwar Pujara has been made scapegoat to hide batting failures, opines Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar has slammed selectors for India’s team selection for the West Indies tour stating that Cheteshwar Pujara has been made the scapegoat for the failure of other batters. He also added that the decision is beyond understanding and the selectors should have a media interaction around it.
After the conclusion of the World Test Championship final in June, India are set to tour West Indies for a multi format series. The teams for Tests and ODIs are announced and the omission of Cheteshwar Pujara has been a surprising move for many with a lot of discussion going around the decision. Sunil Gavaskar has also joined the list of cricketers who have voiced their opinion against the decision saying that Pujara has been made a scapegoat just to hide the batting failure of others.
"Why has he been dropped? Why has he been made the scapegoat for our batting failures. He has been a loyal servant of Indian cricket. A loyal and quiet servant. A loyal and quiet achiever. But because he does not have millions of followers on platforms who will make a noise in case he gets dropped, you drop him. That is something beyond understanding. What is the criteria for dropping him and keeping the others who failed? I do not know because nowadays, there is no media interaction with the selection committee chairman," Gavaskar said in an interview with Sports Today.
Except for Ajinkya Rahane, the batting unit faltered in the WTC final against Australia. Cheteshwar Pujara scored 14 and 27 runs in the game and is dropped from the series against West Indies as a result. However, Gavaskar remarked that Pujara was not the only one to fail and India’s top four were blown away for 71 runs in the first innings.
"He has been playing country cricket. So, he has played a lot of red-call cricket and he knows what it is about. Today, people can play till they are 39-40 years old and as long as you are producing runs, I do not think age should be a factor. Apart from (Ajinkya) Rahane, the batting completely failed. Why Pujara has been made the fall guy is something the selectors will have to explain," he explained.